Atlanta, Georgia.

This is my first of many posts on this blog for the Civil Rights Pilgrimage. I am a junior and was interested in going on the trip to learn about the key mechanisms of social change, and how to incorporate them into my own life to help make a difference in the world; even if the breadth of my work can even change one life, I will consider myself a success. However, my personal goal is to further help the equal rights movement very present in today’s society.

There were a couple things I did today that I think help to contribute to my understanding of social change.

When we first got to Atlanta, Georgia, we went to the CNN World Headquarters and I was able to go on a tour of the complex. In this tour, I learned how media outlets collect information and get it out to the public in a very quick manner. I feel that the media plays a huge role in social change. The more media coverage (and types of media coverage) there are present to cover a story/event, the greater exposure a movement receives. Following suit, the more exposure a movement receives, the more likely it is that it will pick up momentum and gain people to organize, become politically active, teach principles of the movement, and so on and so forth.

The next thing we did was listen to a guest speaker at Morris Brown College. This picture of me was taken with Charles Person. He was one of the original Freedom Riders. He was only 18. How courageous. One of the things that really stood out to me was how well organized the ride was. People from all over the country came to ride – it made no difference if they were white or black – people came together for a common cause and made a change. To me, it was a phenomenal experience to get to meet someone who was actually involved in such a profound part of the Civil Rights Movement, and it makes me want to dig farther in depth in the history and strategies used during the era of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Greg Hofmann

Junior - UWEC

Political Science & Student Affairs