Friday, October 2, 2026
Harriet Tubman, an escaped slave who helped others escape and who served as a scout and spy for the Union during the Civil War, appeared at the Martin Luther King Center in Long Beach Saturday afternoon – at least in the guise of the actress and singer Christine Dixon.
Dixon, 27, of Brooklyn and Hempstead, has spent several years performing as Tubman, a –civil-rights icon she has admired since childhood. In fact, Dixon said her performance Saturday marked the 640TH time she has played Tubman at venues across the country.
She held a crowd of about 100 at the MLK Center entranced for more than two hours as she enacted Tubman’s struggle through slavery, dangerous travel out of the South on the Underground Railroad, and final victory as a free woman who managed to free her own mother from bondage.
Dixon was introduced to the crowd by Johanna Mathieson-Elmer, executive director of Artists in Partnership of Long Beach, which sponsored the performance.
The event was produced by Artists in Partnership, a non-profit cultural arts organization and Friends of Anissa Moore, Cheers @&;00, Bridgeworks co-working and Office Space and Leah Tozer/Daniel Gale Real Estate.
The young actress began her show holding a lantern and singing about the Underground Railroad, which was actually a series of hideouts for escaping slaves. She employed humor in her performance, and took members of the audience onto the gym floor to act and sing along with her.
One favorite was eight-year-old Raelin Coward of Long Beach, who was used for several performances during the afternoon.
‘’I am Harriet Tubman,’’ Dixon said at the outset. ‘I was born in America, but I am the daughter of a slave.”
For those who knew little of Tubman, the afternoon was highly-educational. And for those who did, it was highly entertaining.
Tubman had16 siblings, but some of them disappeared. “What do you think happened to them,” she asked the crowd. ‘’That’s right,’’ she said. ‘’They were sold off.”
Dixon carefully traces Tubman’s life through her marriage, escape from slavery, a horrible assault by a slave-owner that left her hospitalized for 13 months, her husband’s surprise marriage to a much younger woman during her absence, and her own second marriage to a younger man.
Tubman helped free thousands of slaves through the Underground Railroad. A $40,000 bounty was placed on her head by white slave owners.
“My greatest achievement was freeing my mother,’’ Dixon quoted Tubman as saying at the end of her life.
Dixon said she has portrayed Tubman times ‘’because of the message. I am educating people. What I teach you will not learn in school.”
She will be giving future performances in Nassau County. For dates and times, visit harriettubmanherseld.com
