Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee

Dr. Sybil Jordan Hampton in Little Rock, Arkansas

Unsung Hero

A person I didn't know from the movement was Roscoe and his story of being behind it. When I listened to him I remembered easily of how much detail that was included into it. He's like the unsung hero in my opinion which I dont want him forgotten for nothing. And I was compelled that he is still alive all because he was asked not to go in the car of Chaney and the two New Yorkers. I read during storytelling that he went and got his master's from Pepperdine and that his children are also getting college education too. 

Franco

Positive aftermath

After getting out the circle from Selma, I was pretty astounded. That there is still information kept from us as a society swept under the rug. Which brings up to the fact that there is possibly erased history for everyone to forget. And that felt aggravating just figuring out what reality hit me with. Whoever knows it could be dead bodies undiscovered on unconvicted acts that ended crucial and brutal. In conclusion, hopefully a solution can come to past later on and something can actually have a positive aftermath. 

Franco

Kids as adults

At The Legacy Museum, there were letters of those who have been put in jail, but they are convicted wrongly and serving time that is not right for them. Kids and teens being put in jail, people believe that they should be put charged as adults. Which in my opinion is wrong, a child should not be charged as an adult. They are kids, kids who have no business in jail. I understand that there are crimes that need to be punished but, the age limit matters and the type of crime. Teens 15 years of age in an adult jail suffering, the teen knew what they have done. But the sentencing and the placement was a bit harsh. I want to know more about their case, what actually happened, why were they given that sentence? Who made the decision to charge kids as adults?

Aeon

Mr. Jones

One person involved in the Civil Rights movement that I didn’t know about before this trip is

Roscoe Jones. Roscoe Jones was a young man during the Civil Rights movement who was involved

with SNCC. He helped to register voters in the south, to gather attention for

Freedom Schools in Mississippi, and to organize and lead various other programs and protests.

During what was known as the Freedom Summer in Mississippi, 3 Civil Rights activists were

traveling down to Mississippi when they were murdered by klansmen.

Roscoe Jones was supposed to be the 4th member of the group,

but he had an important engagement that came up right

before the group was about to leave and so he couldn’t go.

The tragic story of these activists became widely known, and drew attention to conditions in Mississippi.

Mr. Jones’ story was really interesting to me, and it made me realize that there are

so many heroes of the Civil Rights movement that many don’t know about.

Mr. Jones’ story was so closely connected to a tragic one that everyone knows about,

and yet not many have heard his own name and story. I

think the unknown stories of the Civil Rights Movement are just as important as the known ones.

I think people need to allow themselves to be open to learning about the past even if it’s difficult.

I think we need to change the way we teach American history in school.

I personally am learning so much more than what I was taught about the

Civil Rights movement in school, and I wish that our history classes would be

changed to contain other important parts of American history. What more do I want to learn?

Well, I don’t know for sure but I want to continue visiting these Civil Rights museums and sites,

and I want to focus on paying attention to names I haven’t heard before as opposed to the ones I have.

Changing my mindset

This trip is teaching me a lot about the Civil Rights Movement. I'm learning about statistic and activist that are never in the history books. I feel fortunate enough to come on a trip and learn something that people in the United States have no knowledge of and most likely never will. 

This trip is changing my mindset on many things that I was ignorant about. 

Ashley

Roscoe Jones

One person involved in the Civil Rights Movement that I didn't know about before this trip is Roscoe Jones a World War 2 veteran. Mr. Jones marched from Selma to Montgomery on "Bloody Sunday". Jones was a resident of the Youth Chapter NAACP during the 1964 Freedom Summer. He worked in the local COFO office on voter registration with activists Michael Schwerner, James E. Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. He served as co-chair of the state-wide Freedom Summer Youth Convention at Meridian in 1964. Mr. Jones is the recipient of numerous awards including the Meridian Star for the 2012 "Unsung Hero”. He has spoken with numerous churches, community groups, and schools, including Stanford University.

The first thing that Mr.Jones said when meeting him for the first time was that he was the fourth Civil Right worker and if he was there that night he would've of been dead at seventeen and it wouldn't have made a difference. Mr. Jones urged the children to make a difference and to take a stand on something that they are passionate about. If the older generation cannot make a difference ask the younger generation for a helping hand.

My favorite quotes from him are

“things didn't get the was they are overnight, they're not going to change overnight”.

“you don't think anymore you react”

“You want to make a difference speak on it”.

“They kept secrets in the books”

“Don't start an organization without a leader"

The quotes I chose were important because the Civil Rights Movement fought for racial equality for years and to this day were still fighting. Books hold the history of the world and its full of the knowledge that isn't discovered yet. We had a lot of leaders in this world and they all fought for the people and wanted to make a difference for the people.

Georgianna

Someone from American history that I didn’t know about before this trip is Georgianna, a 13 year old slave. I learned about her by reading the ad in the paper put in to sell her at the Legacy museum. The description included: “About 13 years... She is very valuable and desirable... She will make a tall strong woman, smart enough for inside work, and strong enough for the field or road.” And it wasn’t even just Georgianna’s in that section but also her parents. Her dad Old George stayed: “As faithful and honest an Old African as ever lived.” And “His wife Judy- the same sort of character.” 

Reading these descriptions of these enslaved people appalled me. The fact that these people had the audacity to speak about the enslaved people in such a nice and positive manner, and then go on and treat them so horrible is absolutely immoral and wrong.  Also, the fact that the white people kidnapped and took these people from their homelands and forced them to come to America and become enslaved, and then have the audacity to “give them names” and speak about them so highly, but still manage to treat them as not-human is disgusting. 

Old George, Judy, and Georgianna are just 3 of these enslaved people who dealt with these realities. I don’t want to forget about them. And about all of the people, including the ones who barely even got one sentence besides their age which determines “what price they were worth.” The heartbreaking truth, is that this description in the newspapers was the only information about these enslaved people. Once they were sold, it would be very likely if you never heard from them again. I’d love to look more into if there is more information about other enslaved people, not just this description and not necessarily a “famous” or well-known slave, but those who were less known whose lives were equally as important. 

-Taura Zarfeshan 

James Lawson

“We will accept the violence and the hate, absorbing it without returning it.” - James Lawson

During our visit to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, I came across this quote. Little did I know the impact of James Lawson. His name is less recognizable, but he had a hand in most of the major nonviolent protests in the Civil Rights Movement. Lawson studied satyagraha in India,    teachings of Mohandas Gandhi. Lawson brought back these teachings to the US, and eventually came into contact with Dr. King. Lawson’s role became teaching nonviolence to people. Thus his influence in the freedom rides, sit-ins, and other protests is felt through his students, and Lawson did march as well. When we discuss the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, it is important to remember those like James Lawson who dedicated their time to lifting up others into the movement. Organization and education are just as important as leadership in social movements. 

Owen

Brenda Travis

At the Mississippi Civil rights Museum today, I read about a group of students who tried to integrate the McComb bus terminals, including one high schooler named Brenda Travis. She and her peers were arrested at the Greyhound bus station and spent 28 days in jail. When they were released, Travis found out that she  had been expelled from school. The next day, half of her classmates (115 people) walked out of school in an event known as the Burglund School Walkout. Travis was sent back to jail without a trial. The other students protested until forced to go back to school several weeks later, where they laid down their books and returned to the protest. According to mccomblegacies.org, ‘This was the first mass student-led movement in the state of Mississippi.’

Travis was only fifteen years old at the time. I wonder what I would have done in her situation, having to sit in prison for a month. 

Bella

The unknown victims

If I were to choose anyone that was involved in the civil rights movement that should not be forgotten would be all of the unknown victims of lynching. There are so many nameless people that have been killed because of lynching. Just because these people died without having their names documented, it does not mean that these people should be left to be forgotten. These people all lived with different stories, all coming from from different walks of life but they all shared the same fate: they died at the hands of oppressors.

I find it upsetting to know that those unknown people will continue to remain unknown and have been forgotten over the years because those people, died a horrible death too; the only difference between an unknown victim and a documented victim is that the unknown victim doesn’t have a name on record. Even though their name isn’t documented, their death is just as valid as anybody else’s.

I want to take this moment to remember and acknowledge these people because I don’t want them to die forgotten and and vain. The nameless victim is still a victim. With that being said, I would want to learn about all of the people who have been murdered and left to be forgotten because their life matters too. Through this blog post, I want to honor the lives of all the people that died with no name.

Tomas

Celebrating their lives

The Elaine massacres took place from October 1st until the 7th, 1919. The events of terror were organized by white people who believed that the black people of Arkansas were “out to get them”. At the lynching memorial, I saw the Phillips County memoria which showed an entire side covered with names. Towards the middle, was a bolder section that said over a week, over 230 individuals were murdered. 249, to be exact. I choose not just one person, but all those who were massacred on this day. To celebrate their lives properly, and to make sure their lives are known. We can remember these individuals by visiting the lynching memorial, by becoming more educated through literature, and by spreading the word.

Mollie

he really wasn’t worried

i really enjoyed having dinner with roscoe jones, and that’s not just cause i got to have kidney beans & other viable vegan options! what an amazing human being. i mean, there was the surface- he was a civil rights activist supposed to have been in that car with schwerner, chaney, & goodman, but got called to another engagement- but i got so much out of that. i found him incredibly inspiring.

here are a few things he said that really resonated with me.

“ i am a freedom fighter.”

“how many of you know what integrity is? do we have it? well, start having it. it’s a bible. if you don’t have integrity, you have nothing. when i see the lack of integrity...well, let me say this. you should all be fighting to have it.”

“under democracy we have power, contrary to popular belief.”

“the truth will set you free. a lie will go on & on...the truth hurts. a lie doesn’t hurt me. so i keep on marching.”

“i really wasn’t worried about my life.”

“if you see a wrong, you gotta right it.”

“at first i thought... hey! we had overcome!”

“don’t tell me about it. do something about it.”

“you don’t go to school for an education! life gives you an education! you go to school to learn how to learn! that’s my philosophy. in life experience, i’ve earned a doctorate degree. the price was very high. i could’ve died.”

“when you become silent, you lose power. don’t be like everyone else. don’t be scared to stand out, cause everybody is looking for somebody else to make a difference. stop & think. we react instead of thinking. stop regurgitating what you hear & think before you act. think before you do. think before you speak.”

“it’s not about you!”

“we need to look at the bible & see what happens when the israelites left egypt. they didn’t immediately go to the promised land.”

“we need to get back to our obligations.”

enough said, tbh. he was terrific. tremendously engaging guy!

something that struck me was, looking in various museums, that these sentiments of ‘do what needs to be done’ is what motivates  the kkk & all hate groups as well. it’s a common idiom that love & hate are different sides of the same coin, but now i think good & evil are too. i hope this doesn’t come across weird but- i was really inspired by what roscoe said, but sometimes the most inspiring messages of love can be eerily reminiscent of ‘inspirational’ messages of hate. i tried looking into messages of the kkk online that could serve a point of what i meant. “I am opposed to globalism, I am opposed to colonialism, I am opposed to any sort of complusion of one nation over another. (...) I also deeply believe in human rights.” david duke said that one. & the way they recruited people? they told people to do what they knew was right. i don’t know. there might be nothing there at all! there probably isn’t! maybe that’s just the sign of an effective recruitment system. but it still bothered me, those parallels, for reasons i’m not really sure about. i’ve always been hesitant to call someone evil. 

the more time i spend in the south, the more time i realize everyone is everyone. we’re all people. black people, kkk members, we’re all so much the same.

my friends recently told me after i voiced my concerns to him that he thought that we all have latent, dormant hate & love within us, and our cultures bring them out. i think that’s just... so true. so right.

anyway, i loved roscoe’s story & truly took a lot from that. i get more & more conflicted every day.

- naomI

Making use of our time

Someone that I did know some about but not as much as the other two activists we met was Roscoe Jones. I have heard of him before the trip but we didnt really go in depth in class. We should not forget about him because he was my age when that horrible night happened, and he was my age doing things in the movement for him to have freedom, for me to have freedom, and for everyone to have freedom. I’m still in shock that he could've died that night and I don't know how i would feel if that was me. After the incident he didn't really talk about it but after agreeing to an interview he started to talk about it. It made me realize that life is too short to not do something. We have limited time, and we need to make use of it.

Deliana

Thousands of Names

I’ve been thinking a lot about all the names of people who have been lynched. Thousands of names that I have never read before. Thousands of names that aren’t in the textbooks. I just don’t understand how we have these names and it is still not being taught. That it is 2019 and this is the first time I have read these names. 

I have also been thinking a lot about people’s positivity during the movement. For example during the Children’s Crusade in Birmingham, how people came back in bathing suits after being sprayed with a fire hose. All the smiling faces while they were being sent off to jail, showing no fear. How people held their composure when being spit at and yelled at and beat. Staying in their seats while being screamed at and threatened. I just don’t know how long I would be able to stay composed like that. It is amazing how courageous and thought people are. 

Lastly a quote that has stuck with me and I’ve been thinking about is this-

“Instead of the arms race, we want to lift up the human race. Instead of investing in more weapons of death and destruction, we want to see investments in education, economics, and human development, so that all people have the opportunity to realize their full human potential.” -Coretta Scott King.

Phaedra

ReplyForward

16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama

Black and White photos

I feel inspired by looking at  the black and white photos at the museum. You feel a genuine connection to the people and feel the burning passion and strength they had. Yes it was not an easy task, but it was a brave one to carry on. When faced with injustice we can not just sit back and wait, but take action and stand. That is why I am forever grateful, proud, and honoured to have ancestors of bravery and might. Eva

Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama

Whispers from the South

Whispers from the South

Weeping willows swaying in the sad wind

History reminds, leaves tracks in the soil

Red mud stained the palms of hands

Forgotten names and unknown images

Misleading information, corrupts what Remands in my mind. Stuck behind time.
Hands can’t reach, the hands who needed My help.
My ears were blocked from the Cries of the wounded, beaten, and killed.

Every sight is a new face, new voice,

Awakened sympathy and sadness

I’m sorry..

Air rippling through the atmosphere

Absorbing the stories told

Word after word fogs the sky

I see them, I feel them

Seeing those who were separated

Symbols broken

I shall remain informed

I hear you

Aeon Edwards

Martyrs, heroes, and sheroes

Throughout this trip I’ve just been thinking and a lot of emotions have been flowing through me. But one thing that I have gained from this trip is my purpose. I will make a pledge to fight with all my might to change this world for the generations after me, even if I impact only one person. I want to do something with my life. Before this trip I’ve been living a life with falsifications and I have been hidden from my own self. How can I be a filmmaker in a world where children’s deaths are acceptable, where masses of innocent people are stolen from their families, where bigotry rules just to name a few. I don’t know what I will do or how I will do it. But I know I want to make a contribution to this world and changed it for the better. I am a product of these martyrs, heroes, sheroes that paved the way for me and I won’t let them down. 

Gyasi Mitchell

Roscoe Jones

I never to my knowledge heard of Roscoe Jones. He was powerful in conversation. He made lots of points and made me think. Luckily, I told him that I do my own research on hidden history. I also told him that I attend community meetings in my community Sharp Leadenhall, South Baltimore. It's just great to get involved and see the other side of things. 

Eva

Frank Dodd

Day 3 was really an eye opener going to all of those different places with just a little bit of time for each place . When we were outside looking at the memorial my brain was so half and half on the aspects of what people got lynched for example Frank Dodd was lynched in Dewitt Arkansas, in 1916 for annoying a white woman. This really got me thinking about what If that was still going on and I annoyed one of my white classmates and they got me killed things like that make think about how far have we really come. Our ancestors really fought for us to equal and we can’t even be equal with our own race.

Jewel Howard

Systemic pain

The combination of visiting the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Legacy museum, and Selma saturated my mind with the systematic pain ingrained in our country’s history. While walking through the National Memorial, we were exposed to the many names of the victims of documented lynchings. The dates and the names are endless and thank god we have the memorial to remember them all. Some names are more memorable due to their personal connection. Howard Cooper in Howard County Maryland, nearby Park. I found one name that was a full name of a family member. This stopped me in my tracks even though I knew the shared name was a coincidence. I wonder if more people would care about this part of America’s history if they had to imagine a family member in a historical scenario. 

Owen

Weighing on me

The circle was a big part of my day. I’ve had a lot of built up tension and it was weighing on me for a long time. Hearing others in the circle and all of their thoughts and stories just made me wanna speak about mine. It was shocking to me that I just blurted what I was feeling out and I’m sure it was a shock to others.

Errol

Only the beginning

My thoughts are all over the place & i can’t even put into words how i feel. This experience has inspired me in so many ways I wish other could have experienced but I feel inspired to teach others all the information and learn and continue to dig deeper and find out more information about my ancestry. The system is really designed to bring us down simply because of the color of my skin why is that so many periods and history are just overlooked? Being down south throws in my face the experiences blacks had to face in their daily lives. Why is that today WE are still the most inferior? There are so many questions that linger my mind I will not let this trip be the end to discovery of all these new findings. Somehow I WILL use it to make the world a better place. This is only the beginning.

Anaya

The common square

It’s fascinating to know how there are fragments of the civil rights movement scattered all over the place, there for anyone to see. I am thank that I’ve had this opportunity where I get to see where history happened and share this experience with such amazing people.

With that said, it’s also been challenging to digest everything that I’ve seen over the past few days. There is just so much to see and so much to think about that it’s overwhelming and exhausting, nevertheless, I am eager to continue learning about our country’s history and grow with the people that I’ve met.

What particularly impacts me is how there is so much history that involves the Civil Rights Movement everywhere, where it has become part of people’s lives. I mean, look at Montgomery, Alabama, a city that was once dependent on the slave trade. There, the common square, a place where much of the city’s traffic flows by, used to be a place in which enslaved people were auctioned off. Another place would be the Legacy Museum where the building itself was a slave holding warehouse.

There’s just so much history everywhere we go. As overwhelming as it is to see everything, there is just so much that to see and to learn about the Civil Rights Movement.

Tomas

Someone's hurting my people

Yesterday we explored Selma. We stopped by a black church and a confederate cemetery. The cemetery was sinister because it was so well-kept even to this day. The streets of Selma were mostly deserted and, leaving the cemetery, I felt a real sense of despair.

But when we approached the Edmund Pettus Bridge, getting ready to cross, we saw a woman sitting at a table covered in pamphlets.

We didn’t know whis she was and we had no idea she was going to be there, but she spoke to us and led us across the bridge. She taught us a song as well, and sang with us. 

It was like she was standing against the wave of hatred coming from that confederate cemetery. She had set up her table on MLK jr day in the frigid cold just waiting to speak with anyone who might want to cross the bridge. She was very inspiring. I think her name was Queenie Jackson. 

Bella

Different versions of themselves

Yesterday was very emotional, but I think it was therapeutic for all of us. We visited a handful of museums and memorials, many of them remembering victims of lynching and including statistics of acts of terrorism perpetrated by members of the KKK and white people in general. This all weighed pretty heavily on all of us, and we had a circle discussion at the end of the day to talk about how we were feeling in that moment. Many people opened up and shared some pretty personal things, and most of us were brought to tears by the end of it. Although discussions like that are difficult and painful, it’s a crucial part to processing the horrific events that still haunt this country today, and to ultimately heal so that we are able to move forward, both as individuals and as a society. If strong emotions like that get bottled up, they don’t just go away; they simply morph into a different version of themselves, and usually come out in unhealthy ways. These conversations need to happen more often.

Sonia Hug

Opening up

Day 3 has been the most emotional day. When we went to the museum I met a older African American lady and we started talking. We were watching how many people were lynching and looking for the names of the people. When we look at Mississippi that’s where she’s from, she told me about her grandfather. She was comfortable enough to share her story with me. She said that her mother lost both of her parents at age of 13 and that she never find out what happened to them. That her mother tried to get information about it but she never got anything. The older lady told me that she was there to find some information about her grandparents. Meeting with her was a great experience, she taught me not to give up but also to open up about my own life. 

Nayely

Howard Cooper, Towson, MD. 1885

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the roots of the oppression so many still face today. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about the connection to nature. Rather, what makes me cry, what makes me angry, is the connection to the ground on which we walk. When I was at the Legacy Museum, created by Bryan Stevenson, I saw an exhibit of different samples of soil from lynchings across the United States. On the second shelf from the top, was a glass urn of soil. Brown, chunky, bits of grass, it somehow looked familiar. Written on the container: Howard Cooper, Towson, MD. 1885. Why have I not learned about this in school? Why is there not a memorial for those who were lynched in Maryland? What has it taken me this long to know? I walk around Towson at least five times a week. Some of my closest friends live in Towson. And here’s a place in which someone was killed for no reason. Someone was racially terrorized. And I bet it was not just one, but many. Many who suffered trauma not only on that day, but every day after. And somehow it got covered up.

Now, it’s not lynchings but pointless killings in Baltimore City. It’s police brutality. It’s unbalanced access to education. It’s an increase in domestic violence. It is the city of Baltimore: it’s secrets of murder forever swept under the rug.

Over the past four days, I’ve been constantly surrounded by the pain and suffering my race created for others. It is because of people of my race that a system of oppression was created and constantly enforced. I’m overwhelmed by the feelings of frustration and anger when thinking about the complacency I’ve been taught, and the idea that so many of my race do not understand the contributions we have made to the black community’s pain and suffering. I am swimming through these emotions and working towards finding what to do with these intense feelings. I’ve been working hard to come up with a plan in how I can make change. I know I will write a letter to the Maryland government to come claim their history of lynching. I know I will present to my school on my experience. I know I will come back and chaperone during college. But I am worried that is not enough. I am scared. I am scared for my complacency, for my friends’, for my peers’. I am scared for my friends who identify as people of color. I am nervous that I have done a disservice to them. And I don’t know how to fix it.

Mollie

Different

For this blog, I really want to talk about the experience I had after we crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. After we crossed, we all gathered around in a circle and began to talk. We answered questions like “what word would you use to describe today?” and “what are you willing to die for?”. We all went around answering the questions, and people’s answers started to get really deep, and you could tell people were really opening up and letting themselves be vulnerable. It was a moving experience to say the least, and I learned things about life and about the people around me that I had fully realized or that the I hadn’t even known. All the emotions of the day came back to everyone in that moment, and it was really special to see everyone connect. For my word to describe the day, I said “different”. I chose “different” because I know that when I go back to Baltimore after this trip ends I will never be the same. I’m feeling “different” because I understand so much more than I ever have, and I’ve began to realize so much more about humanity. Every single day on this trip I’m overwhelmed with emotion. I’ve felt heartbroken and I’ve felt hope in almost all the places I’ve gone. I say “different” because I feel a tremendous change inside of myself.

Isabel Taylor

Inspiration to fight

Yesterday was hard because we saw a lot of upsetting things. But for me it’s just inspiration to continue the fight against injustice and unfair treatment of black people. Being able to go to the memorial and see all those people who were lynched unnecessarily was eye opening because I didn’t know that all those people even existed because we weren’t taught it in school. It shows how uneducated the school system allows us to be on black history and it’s saddening that the younger kids aren’t learning this and their growing up uneducated and unaware of what reality really is. 

-Aminah

Opened my eyes

Yesterday was a pretty emotional day, but I feel like it brought us together as a group. Hearing how others felt about what we saw yesterday opened my eyes. Before I came on the trip I thought I knew a lot about the civil rights movement, but I learned a lot of new things. 

Jamie

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Today at the first stop, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, it affected me today. Reading all the names and dates the people lynched, many with no true reason was heartbreaking. In school you learn the numbers and statistics, but they only really tell you of the big ones, like Emmitt Till. When reading reasons for people being lynched it was angering as a lot of the reasons were stupid. Also seeing the multitude they did these lynchings, whole families, whole communities; They were all lynched. It made me pretty upset and I didn't know how else to feel at the time. A big thing that affected me was going to the top of the center hill and seeing how big and how many people were lynched, and these were the documented ones. It really was sad going through the memorial, but i think it was beneficial for me to see it, to understand the magnitude of people who lost their lives to lynching.

Deli

Floating pillars

So today was a really long and tear jerking day for many people.. I will say it started off pretty well, I got miraculously a single seater, meaning more space of how selfish I am.. joking! I would say it started off hyped since I saw my friend keyonte begin the morning talk thingy.. It was great, we went to a memorial for the people who were killed during the racial terror era of the United States, it was devastating knowing that people treat african americans so much like insects or property.. What struck me the hardest was the "unknown" engraved on the floating pillars to signify their remembrance even if we can't fully identify them.. But I really want to bring this blog towards the end... It wasn't the best time for many, including myself. Selma. It was first introduced to us by a man we had randomly met on the streets of the church that had MLKJ's statue, he gave a abrupt message saying "welcome to saudi arabia",which was confusing and began to bring his friend to explain the situation of poverty and distress in the neighborhood they lived in, which was the project areas of selma. The threatening parts were that they had in possession visibly a weapon stated by another student after the encounter. This encounter was only to bring tears and sadness of memories brought up of a fallen student of City..

The circle is what I want to mention first, it was first to come together as a way to reconcile and rejoice our time in selma and to share thoughts, but it started going downfall with the first question.. "what are you willing to die for" to --> "1 word to describe your feelings of the trip so far~" --> "why your chosen word"...

This is something I don't want to personally go over as in summary.. people broke down to share their emotions after a long and stressful day at exhibits showcasing cruelty. You'll know from other day 3 blogs in details most likely!

Hoa Nguyen

Cycle of hate

An experience that has stayed in my mind throughout this trip would be when we were standing in the reflection circle after having walked across the Edmund Pettus. I would say that it was one of the most challenging experiences on this trip for me so far. Around me I saw the people that I have had the privilege to meet and have grown to love. I saw the pebbles that made standing a challenge and the beautiful watercolors of the sunset sky. I saw the bus, the trees, and the pebbles, all of which contributed to creating the safe space for us to express our most profound emotions. Around me, I heard cars swooshing by the road and voices expressing thoughts and ideas coming straight from everyone’s hearts, everyone’s but mine. While everyone had the courage to open up and expand on their emotions, I felt like a coward. I was incapable of speaking from my heart mere from the fact that I was just too scared; I said nothing, I was incapable of uttering ANYTHING AT ALL because I am a coward.

At the very beginning of the reflection circle, we were asked how we felt/feel based on the experiences that we’ve had throughout this trip; everyone in the group came up with valid emotions this that people could relate to, and all I said was that I didn’t know what to feel. There was just so much that I have processed I’ve the past 24 hours that it has made it difficult for me to even categorize my emotions in the first place.

Thinking about it now, I think that I have experience a mix of what everyone has been feeling. Throughout this trip, I have felt torn, where I don’t know how to feel. The reason being is that there is now way in which I can define my emotions, I feel as if I felt too many feelings for me to just box it in any category. Regardless, some of the emotions I have felt included: feeling empty, betrayed, angered, powerless, and inspired, just to name a few.

I felt empty knowing how people are willing to commit these acts of terror on people and do it without caring. It’s sobering to know that this country has done these acts for so many years without even questioning it in the first place and continues to do so in a more secretive way. With that said, I also feel betrayed, how our country has permitted this, even when we proudly say that everyone is created equally. Where was this sentiment then and where is it now?!?!?! From this, I also feel angered, by knowing that people have the audacity to go up to others and tell them that they aren’t human, telling them that they are inferior, to the point that many of these people took this information as factual. It angers me to know that there were people who looked at people of colored and still had the hatred inside of them to want to kill them for no reason at all. THIS ISN’T NATURAL, humans are made to love which means that this sort of crap, is taught onto our children, where hating is a norm. If left untreated, this cycle of hate will continue to evolve and will continue to affect us in the future In a more insidious way than it is now. It angers me to know that even today, our schools teach students that the world is okay now, that everyone is equal and happy with each other, but that just isn’t the case! We now live in an era of the new Jim Crow, where people of color are still being discriminated against and are put into a new form of slavery, a new form of systemic genocide, a quieter one but still one that is present in today’s society. I feel powerless, where my fear of being able to express my emotions got the best of me. It frustrates me to know that I could have talked about my emotions and how I’ve felt so far but I decided to let those opportunities slip. I was scared to admit that I couldn’t categorize my conflicting emotions because I felt so many. In the end, I also feel inspired. This trip has inspired me by showing me the courage that these people had by fighting the government and the ruling majority for their  fundamental rights. It inspires me to know that these people are just like any one of us: they came from all walks of life but shared the same motivation to accomplish what they deserved, to be seen as equals in everyone’s eyes. It makes me feel inspired to know that any one of us can make a change in the world, all that we need to make a change is to be motivated and inspired enough to want to make the world a positive place for everyone to live in.

In the end, I hope that this blog post can make up for my lack of words in the reflection circle but I feel as if this experience has also managed to make me believe in myself and my ability to express my emotions in the group.

Tomas

Changing the world one step at a time

Not going to lie...today was kind of a lot to handle. It was absolutely amazing to be able to go to all of those museums, memorials, and to walk around in the different locations, but it was a lot to take in all at the same time. We first went to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honored the victims of lynching by county. The architecture and how it was set up was very interested to see, because as you walked on it got more and more “severe” and the engraved stones were hanging higher and higher. The part about why they were lynched was so hard to go through because they were the more unreasonable excuses to hurt someone. Another “hard” place to endure was the Legacy Museum. That was very interesting to go through and to learn about, but it was also so heartbreaking the more and more you continued from exhibit to exhibit. Every part of it was more powerful than the last and it was really captivating and heartbreaking to learn about. A part that struck out the most to me was the listings of the enslaved people and how they were written about in such nice ways but were treated so horribly. 

It was also super uncomfortable to be in the confederate cemetery in Selma. The fact the the whole city seems to be a “ghost town” and how that cemetery was so well-kept and nice looking when across the street there are homes that look like they’re falling apart is sickening. It was also so scary to think about what it would be like if all of those people in the cemetery were alive, and there in real life. What would they do? What would they say? Would they be like the white supremacists that are active in the world and media today? 

Lastly, the walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the big group talk that we had afterwards are definitely experiences that I will never forget. It was so exhilarating and empowering to walk across the bridge, in the same place where Martin Luther King Jr. walked all those years ago, while singing the freedom songs that all of those people seeking equality and justice sang together. It made me feel so empowered to be in that position, and as if I too can change the world one step at a time. Our talk afterwards was one of the “realest” experiences in my life. It showed me that I am not alone in my problems and fears. We are all the same. We are all going through things, and can all get through it together. But the truth is, that the world is not fair and is full of hate, and that is something that I want to fix. I said in the circle today that I firmly believe that hatred is taught. How else would so many people be able to look into someone’s eyes and HATE them just because of the color of their skin? How can they not see their humanity and see that we are all the same? Hatred was apparent in the civil rights era and it is apparent now. In our corrupt politics and present in our society and media. That is one overarching and powerful thing that has not changed throughout the years. Yes slavery was abolished, and yes after much fighting for equality and justice and after many many unnecessary murders were black and white people officially proclaimed as equals, but even today racism and segregation is still prominent in more evolved ways. The hatred is still there and still alive and that is what is pushing our country and society down the drain like it keeps doing over and over again. The worst part is that I clearly see this, especially after today but I feel powerless at the same time. I don’t know what I can do to help change the country and the world. Yes, writing to politicians and protesting are good things to do, but it doesn’t seem like that will alter anything. I hope that by the end of this trip that I might have a clearer idea about what to do, but in the meantime I will stay open-minded and open to all the possibilities that can arise. 

-Taura Zarfeshan

toes

i can count on my toes the number of days that changed my life. my left pinky toe? my sweet sixteen. my first kiss? i can see that one over at my right middle toe. but today was big-toe-level-life-changing, not gonna lie.

today began with seeing the national memorial for peace and justice in montgomery. it documents all the incidents of racially-motivated lynchings of black americans. every county had its own rectangle block with the names and dates of each documented lynching. there were hundreds upon hundreds of rectangles. being in that space, bearing witness to that- i felt. hmm. i felt humbled. i felt glad that i’m white. i felt guilty. i felt really really sad. i’d love a more academic word but... sad. yeah.

warren powell, 14, was lynched in east point, georgia, in 1889 for ‘frightening’ a white girl. a unnamed black man was lynched in 1892 in millersburg, ohio, for ‘standing around’ a white neighborhood. fred alexander, a military veteran, was lynched and burned alive before thousands of spectators in leavenworth, kansas in 1901. will brown was lynched in omaha, nebraska in 1919 by a riotous white mob of 15,000. in 1922, charles atkins, 15, was burned alive by a white mob of approximately 1,000 in washington county, georgia. fred rochelle, 16, was burned alive as a public spectacle in polk county, florida, in 1901. 239 were lynched in phillips county, arkansas, in 1919. frank dodd was lynched in dewitz, arkansas, in 1916, for annoying a white woman.

you get my point. but you don’t. i don’t either. it was entirely pointless. i mean, i know in the minds of those whites supremacists it was everything (hatred has a way of consuming everything it touches) but it just seems. like. they were never allowed to be people. just black.

we all have toes. how hard is that for people to realize? we are more alike than we are different. we all have toes. they all had big-toe-days too. some of those kids- charles atkins, fred rochelle, warren powell- they never got to have those big-toe-days, you know? they died with so many toes left over, so many years unraveling like a spool of yarn down a hill.

next we went to the rosa parks museum. it didn’t impact me emotionally in quite as resonating a way, but i really admire her and how she made it known she was a protestor, not a victim. that’s a distinction i’m not sure i fully understand, in terms of my own actions as someone who advocates for social change.
after, we stopped by the southern poverty law center, which had amazing water installations.

we then went to the legacy museum, which was terrific. i took mass incarceration with max wiggins last year, and god was that relevant. prisons are violent hellscapes, free labor for big corporations. it’s modern slavery, and most people don’t really care. white robes were taken off, and black ones donned instead. a little black boy walked by me while i read, and pointed to a picture of inmates, and said “look daddy! bad guys!” that broke my heart. i was able to see the lynchings by county- in carroll county, townsend cook was lynched june 2nd, 1885. i wonder how close that was to my house, my school. i know a lot of other whites who have generations of family locally. it’s easy to call post-civil-war racial violence a southern problem, but it really was and is not. a man was killed- murdered. murdered. i found an old clipping online, and it reads “Townsend Cook, the negro who assaulted Mrs. Carrie V. Knott, of Carroll County, was taken from the jail at Westminster about 1 o'clock this morning by a body of masked men and hanged.” downtown westminster? i don’t know how many times i’ve gone to lunch with my family or went to the library or went to anti-trump protests on the same block where 130 years ago a man was imprisoned and lynched. nothing made being in the south any more hallowed than being at home.

we then went to selma, and met a man who told us about the violence in selma. it’s a community devastated by poverty. he said that others killed their families, so they killed the families of those others. people kept asking “this is selma?”

then we went to live oak cemetery, a privately owned confederate memorial cemetery. it was really valuable to me to walk there. slavery was pure evil, but walking amongst those gravestones, it didn’t feel different. it felt like those were just people. dead people whose names had been rubbed off headstones by decades of rain and fuzzy moss. they were people. isn’t that terrifying? they weren’t monsters or aberrations, they were just. people.

we then, singing old civil rights freedom songs, crossed the edmund pettus bridge. i felt so giddy. the sun was golden and warm, and all our voices together brought some old dormant spirit inside of myself to life. we shall overcome. you ain’t gonna turn me round. somebody’s hurting my people. our feet pounded across the silver metal, in the shadows of those who came before us. i knew in that moment that i could never replicate that feeling- being 16, walking arm in arm across a twinkling alabama river, flecks of peace and warmth settling on our shoulders and in our hair like snowflakes.

we then formed a circle on the other side of the bridge, and had the most vulnerable and beautiful conversation i’ve ever been a part of. not a single eye was dry. everyone cared so much and had been through so much trauma. the clouds turned pink then gold, and the sun set over the river, and we kept talking in the dark. the frogs began to croak in the swamp below us, and still our voices rushed on like the highway beside us. listening to them be so honest, so real... i cried and cried and cried until my mascara ran in blue and black streaks down my cheeks. i could feel my life being forever altered. my toes curled into the pebbly ground below me, and for the first time in a long while, i knew i belonged somewhere.

and that is the story of my right big toe.

- naomi