UWEC Civil Rights Pilgrimage

2012-01-22T16:02:00.000-06:00

At the Little Rock Nine statues, right next
to the state capitol in Arkansas

Stained Glass at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church-
donated by
the people of Wales in memory of the four little girls
that were killed when a
bomb went off in the church

On a bus tour of the 9th Ward in New Orleans.
Even though a lot of progress has been made,
there is still a lot to do!

I honestly had no expectations before we left for this trip. I figured it would be a cool way to see a part of the country I had never see before, probably be fun, and maybe learn a little bit. Well, looking back (only a week out, mind you) I think going on this trip was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. I not only learned a TON of new, interesting information, but met some sweet people and it reaffirmed what I want to do with my life. Going to the museums, hearing speakers, and touring cities was a solid mix of ways to learn about the Civil Rights movement. I think hearing from Joanne Bland and her sister was one of my favorite parts because they were such vivid storytellers. One could tell that they still had deep wounds from the time by the way they shared their stories. Joanne is coming here to campus on Thursday and I am very excited to hear her speak again.
Two things I don't think I will ever forget from this trip are 1: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. got a C+ in high school public speaking. What?! Yeah that one blew my mind a little bit. It's so ironic that one of the best speakers this world has produced earned an average grade in that subject. Just goes to show that grades aren't the most important thing in the world. And 2: When we were at Slave Haven (a stop on the Underground Railroad) our tour guide said that at night, the slave owners couldn't leave the fireplace going in fear of embers flying everywhere, so to keep themselves warm, they put slave children at the foot of the bed for warmth. I was absolutely baffled when I heard that. How could the owners do that? To children especially! I was discusted by it. Even though that is a horrible thing, I feel that I will never forget it.

With Charles Persons, one of the original Freedom Riders

Mural in Atlanta

We went to Little Rock as well and met with students from the Clinton School of Public Service. That is the only school in the country that offers a Masters in Public Service. It was really exciting for me because that grad school is totally something I am interested in. Since my major (Liberal Studies-Community Development) is unique, I didn't think there were too many places that offered higher education in that area. After chatting with Andrea & Stephen (two Clinton School students), I was super pumped because there are many people that have similar interests and passions as me.
Overall, this trip was incredible. I feel so blessed at all the opportunities we were afforded. I definitely want to go again!

Pilgrimage Experience

2012-01-19T23:24:00.002-06:00

Hey everyone,

I am so so glad that I decided to go on this trip because it taught me a lot about my nation's past and what some people had to endure during a time in history. In high school you learn broad facts about civil rights but this trip really helped me learn so much more than I already knew. I have so many memories from this trip that I wouldn't change for the world. You get to travel to so many cities and so many states and you get see how beautiful the south is. I feel everyone who was on the trip each got something different out of the trip but I believe that to be part of the beauty of this trip that each person was touched differently in their own way. The most enriching experience for me was the trip to Selma Alabama. Selma is very different from my hometown and made me realize how privileged I really am. We got to walk over the Edmund Pettius bridge which was an important march during that time because it was the route people marched just to have the freedom to vote. A lot of people in today's society don't realize how lucky they have it being born with what seems like inherent rights but wasn't always inherent to all people. I hope students will continue to have an opportunity to go on this pilgrimage and be able to experience what I have had the pleasure of seeing and learning about this nation's great history. The end.

Finding "your Selma"

2012-01-17T17:21:00.002-06:00

I had the pleasure of interviewing Charles Mauldin, 64, during our visit to Selma, Ala., on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage. His testimony about his experiences during the Civil Rights Movement served as a turning point of the Pilgrimage for me and reminded me what is important.

I believe in the power of people's stories, which is why I chose journalism as a career in the first place. Everyone has a story and everyone deserves to tell it. As a journalist, I have the privilege to tell people's stories.

Mauldin's story centered more around the indignities he and other African-Americans suffered before and during the movement. His pain was etched on his face, and I could barely hold back tears because of the cruelty and hate he remembered, all because of the color of his skin.

As our interview ended, Mauldin encouraged me, and later, other members of the Pilgrimage, to pursue social justice and find the Selma in our lives.

I'm privileged to have found my passion in journalism at an early age. But Mauldin's story and encouragement to find the Selma in my life reminded me again of my love for people's stories and my desire to tell them, especially those that are not told. Even now, I'm editing video of Charles so I can post it so that people know what happened to him.

Journalism, or rather, giving voice to the voiceless, is my Selma. With my work and passion for it, I will pursue my Selma. I aim to make Mauldin proud.

best time of my life

2012-01-17T16:17:00.002-06:00

The past 10 days have truly changed my life. I never could have thought that 40 people on 1 bus could influence each other the way that they did. I return home with new friendships that I truly cherish along with a new outlook on life. I feel strongly about making a change in this world, not only for myself, but to influence others so that they can make a greater change. Thank you all for the opportunity.

Reflections

2012-01-17T10:40:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we returned from the Civil rights pilgrimage, and I would have to say it was one of the best experiences of my college career so far. I experienced and learned more in the past 10 days then any winter break before. I learned so much about the struggle for civil rights, and those who were strong enough to stand up for what they believed in. One of the most amazing parts of the trip was the number of people we were able to listen to who were actually there, both because its powerful to hear the first hand accounts of the era, but also because its a reminder of how this all happened relatively recently.

Another highlight of the trip was being able to explore all of the cities we visited, my favorites were probably New Orleans, Little Rock, and Memphis. However, I must say I was able to take away something from every place we went to. It was also great to be able to meet everyone who went on the trip and shared my experiences. There were so many wonderful people that I might not of had the chance to meet without this trip.

I am Back

2012-01-16T18:33:00.000-06:00

I am now back to campus and a new person is born after the whole civil rights trip. I am coming back stronger to give up to the society that gave me a lot. I am back to share wonderful stories with all the people I know on Campus. I am back to express love , tolerance and respect to everybody. I am back to celebrate diversity.I am so honored that I lived all the moments of joy with the students from UWEC and that we all shared our colorful personalities and knowledge. After going back home I will talk and write about the great people I met on my road for success. The Civil Rights Pilgrimage trip gave me a key to open the doors of prosperity, love and freedom. Bless you all

Inspired

2012-01-16T15:09:00.002-06:00

We just arrived back home in Eau Claire this morning around 9am. This trip was my first as a coordinator and second overall. I am so thankful that I have been given the opportunity to participate in this amazing experience more than once. I think that it is impossible for someone to go on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage and not come home a changed person. I am especially lucky because every time I go on this trip, I will return home with a stronger desire to make change.

I know a fire inside of me has been lit and I know the same can be said of others on the trip. I hope we can fuel this fire and keep it going long into the future. One of the main take-home-messages from the CRP is that we, ordinary people, can make a difference. Let's get started. :)

Social Change the Focus of Day Two in Little Rock

2012-01-14T18:45:00.009-06:00

Bus Two students toured the Clinton Presidential Library and learned about the politics of social justice. Students responded to the statement...the personal is political. And some students imagined what it might be like to sit in the President's car or around the cabinet table making policies to make change in our world.

Bus One started their day at Heifer Village learning about the principles used by Heifer International to end hunger and poverty around the world. They also learned about social justice organizations work throughout our world. Students learned about sustainable living practices and toured the Heifer International Headquarters and learned about the features that make the building a LEED Platinum building and the philosophy that inspired its development.

It was a great day in Little Rock!

Powerful Day in Little Rock

2012-01-14T18:22:00.009-06:00

After a wonderful experience at the Visitor's Center and Little Rock Central High School, we loaded our buses and headed to the statues of the Little Rock Nine positioned outside of the Governor's Office at the Alabama State Capitol. The beautiful statues are a constant reminder of the wrongs of segregation and a celebration of the strength of nine students to make change.

When we finished our visit to the statues, the students participating in the journalism and women's studies classes, enjoyed a dinner discussion with students from the Clinton School of Public Service. Groups discussed the issues that the Clinton School students have chosen to focus on during their time in the master's program. Our UW-Eau Claire students came away motivated to become advocates for social change in whatever career they choose.

2012-01-14T18:04:00.003-06:00

A group of students toured the historic Montgomery Bus Station to learn more about the Freedom Riders.

For the group it was a good opportunity to learn more about the experience of the Freedom Riders and see first hand many of the things that Mr. Charles Person shared with us during his lecture on Sunday.

We crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on our way out of Selma. Students were moved by the experience. They were asked by Ms. Joanne Bland to think about the history of the bridge as they began their trek. By the end of the bridge she wanted students to have committed to making change in their own world to create justice for all. On the bus we talked about the social justice we plan to work toward when we return to Wisconsin.

At Little Rock Central High School and the Visitors Center we learned about the Little Rock Nine and their experience integrating Little Rock Central High School.

We also learned about the Lost Year and the life of Minnijean Brown Trickey. Spirit Trickey Rowen shared about her life experience as the daughter of a tireless activist.

Trip coordinators pose at Central High School. They pose the question to trip participants...how does the resegregation of the American school system impact our society?

2012-01-14T17:41:00.003-06:00

Our trip is nearing an end. This has been an amazing journey. On my seventh trip, I am still amazed at the power of this experience for me. I am often moved to tears. I am always inspired and motivated to do better, be better, try harder to make this a more just world. I still have much work to do and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with this amazing group of students to bring this important immersion experience to UW-Eau Claire students. This year's coordinators have worked tirelessly for the last year to make sure this is a meaningful and growthful experience for their peers. They have succeeded! Thank you Mary, Sarah, Elsa, Jackie, Nicholas, Virgil, Paul, and Mathias. And, thank you to the phenomenal group of students who have participated in this trip. You have inspired me.

Journal 5

2012-01-13T00:29:00.004-06:00

New Orlenas, LA 12:30 AM Day 6
Our first stop of today was New Orleans African American Museum where is in Treme. It is known as the America’s oldest neighborhood of “Free People of Color” and home to New Orleans. It was interesting to have a bus tour and walking tour exploring Treme. I have learnt about historical achievements of free people of color and enslaved African, and the Jazz history. Second stop was a swamp tour that was at the southwest of the French quarter. It was a very bio-diverse wetland I have ever seen, it was a really awesome experience to ride on airboat, and had a chance to grab a small gator. It was amazing to see an albino gator which costs $40,000 dollars.

AirBoat

White Gator

2012-01-12T22:53:00.003-06:00

- Civil Rights

One of the main stop today is the New Orleans African American Museum. It is located in the oldest surviving black community in the United States. The museum is a beautiful Treme Villa. We had a lady lead us to walk around the museum. That was a wonderful experience. She is so knowledgeable. I really enjoy walking around the gallery. They used an antique-styled gold frame and took a picture outside it. Those pictures show the face of African-American are so happy. Unlike what I have seen before in this trip, I finally saw some pictures the African-American are smiling:)

- Swamp Tour

Sitting on a high speed air boat, the tour guide was taking us to see the gators. This is my first time to join a swamp tour and see real gators. I had wonderful memories of the time on the swamp. I cannot believe that I can hold the small alligator. This is so awesome!

Something in Discussion

2012-01-12T02:06:00.002-06:00

Today is a pretty good day. We have a discussion talking about the term of “Patriarchy” while we are heading to New Orleans. According to the dictionary.com, the “Patriarchy” means:

1: social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power

2: a society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy
we are arrived at New Orleans.

Nowadays, society is still dominated by the man even though the equality of between women and men has improved. The supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jong-il was a good example in our discussion. Kim Jong-il succeeded his leadership from his father and he decided to pass it to his son Kin Jong-un. Although Kim Jong-il has a daughter, he still chose to pass the leadership to his son after he died. This is a good example describing “Patriarchy”.

After our discussion, the bus finally arrived at New Orleans. The sunset here is beautiful and I am looking forward to the civil rights tour tomorrow.

Journal 4

2012-01-12T01:40:00.005-06:00

New Orleans, LA 1:42 AM Day 5

It was a really nice day in New Orleans, LA. We had a 5 hours’ drive from Selma, AL to New Orleans, LA. Before arriving New Orleans, we had lunch at Salute Italian Restaurant at Gulf Port. The food there wasn’t too good, but fine. The beach in Gulf Port was beautiful, but there was too windy, I did not stay too long. We also dicussed about the patriarchy in today's world. I think it is like a norm to be patriarchy, as we see the CEO or very high management, they are usually male. Although more female is getting education and having better promotion chance in the business world. It seems like they need a male as a leader. Today is a really good day.

After we get to New Orleans, we tried to search for food. We picked Bourbon house for dinner. It
was a French restaurant which is famous for oyster. My friends and I ordered 2 dozen of Louisiana Oyster on the half shell, 1 dozen of Trio Bake Oysters and fried oysters with French fries.

The raw Oysters were delicious, and fresh, we spent less than 5 minutes to finish 2 dozen of oysters. The Trio Baked Oysters came with 3 types of serving which are Oysters Rockefeller, oysters Bienville, and Oysters Fonseca. Oysters Rockefeller was baked with cheese and some
seasoning; Oyster Bienville was baked with spinach with meat; Fonseca was baked with mustard and some mashed vegetable. My friend ordered crab soup with corn that was tasty too. The day in New Orleans was awesome; I had a lot fun and am looking forward to tomorrow for civil right museum and the swamp tour.

Interviewing a Living Legend:Rev. Frederick D. Reese

2012-01-12T00:39:00.004-06:00

While on our stop in Selma, AL I had the pleasure of sitting down with Reverend Frederick D. Reese. Reverend Reese was there on Bloody Sunday, he also signed the letter that was sent to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. inviting him to come to Selma to gain equal voting rights for all citizens.
"I marched side by side with Dr. King, went to jail with him, suffered with him for the right to vote and to tried to bring about a change in our community," Rev. Reese said.

Rev. Frederick Reese (front with hat) holds hands with Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the march from Selma to Montgomery.

On March 21, 1965, Reese marched along with close to 8,000 people across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on their 54 mile march to Montgomery, AL. The journey across the bridge was one of three attempts to travel to the State Capital of Montgomery. The first of these marches took place on March 7, 1965 which is historically known as Bloody Sunday. During my time interviewing Rev. Reese he shared his memory of that day and the days that followed in the march from Selma to Montgomery.

Day 5: Montgomery and Selma, Alabama

2012-01-11T07:26:00.002-06:00

Our good-looking group in front of the capitol building in Montgomery, where we would then take a tour of a building that presented a lot of Alabama's history...EXCEPT the Civil Rights Movement and a true representation of the Civil War and slave experience. There are NO African American heroes represented in the building or mentioned in the tour, and NO mention of Civil Rights whatsoever, although the building still flies the Confederate flag. Figure that one out...

Outside the Civil Rights Memorial Center with Maya Lin's monument to 40 of the martyred individuals from 1954 to 1968.

Bus 1 students with Joanne Bland at Brown Chapel (African Methodist Episcopal church), a church that served as the center of the movement in Selma, Alabama and was the starting place for the marches on Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, and the final Voting Rights March to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

(notice Joanne hugging Andrew in the front row!)

Joanne shows us the history behind the church, where marchers gathered before the marches.

The trip coordinators with Joanne Bland and Lynda Lowery, two strong and powerful women who marched on Bloody Sunday as teenagers and told their stories to us with such courage and resolve. They are an inspiration to EVERYONE in standing up for an issue and fighting for what they believe is right.

Journal 3

2012-01-11T01:58:00.003-06:00

Selma, AL 2:00 am Day 4
Today was a long day, and we were the State Capitol of Alabama, Civil Rights Memorial Center, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, then we went to Selma, AL. Frankly, I am overwhelmed with everything today, and just too tired; but the salves experience was really unforgettable to me. It
seriously reminded me about the Chinese slavery in mid-18 century. When the time westerner discovered the America, they need a lot of labor to do mining, so they got the slaves from Africa and China to dig the gold and repair the construction of east-west coast rail way, they recruited a large number of Chinese Laborers, but half of them were dead before going to America. They were also segregated by American at that moment, which is pretty similar to foundation labels for African American. Will talk more tomorrow.

"No Dogs and Chinese Allowed" Sign

http://usslave.blogspot.com/2011/04/petitioner-homer.html

Follow us as we travel!

2012-01-10T23:58:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone - just so you can visually see the places we have been on a map (and lists of what we have done on this winterim 2012 trip), visit this ZeeMap and explore a bit - and even plan your own Pilgrimage. Or you could just ... you know ... hop on the bus with us. It's a great time, and look at where you get to go!

Just click that link, zoom in on the United States, and - Ta da! - there are the flags.

Montgomery and Selma, Alabama

2012-01-10T23:07:00.004-06:00

This day was one of the most emotional days that I have had since the day that I visited Aushwitz last year in Poland.

The first part of the day, we toured the state capitol of Alabama and it was ironic to see the history between the state capitol and the Southern Poverty Law Center. At the state capitol they mainly talked about the white history of Alabama and it depicted the Native Americans as hostile and only depicted the blacks during the Reconstruction Period of their history.

On the other hand, as we went to the Southern Poverty Law Center, it was evident that they showed a another side of history that was not portrayed at the state capitol. The thing that stood out to me that most about the SPLC was the tunnel of hate crimes that were depicted and the wall of tolerance. As I was reading about the hate crimes, I couldn't help but conjer up so much emotion that my eyes were filled with tears. I didn't understand how someone could hate someone so much to commit these crimes against someone else that they hardly know. It is something that I don't quite understand and perhaps never will.

The next leg of the trip was one of the most emotional as we arrived in Selma, Mississippi. We went through the slavery museum and the way in which we went through the museum was a simulation of what it was like to be a slave from the moment of capture. Although this version was really nice in comparison to what it really was, it was very emotional and very degrading. We couldn't look at our leader, gotten checked out by the overseer, had to walk with knees bent, spent time in the dark dungeon, the ship and when we arrived, the thing that happened afterwards was even more frightening. The overseer picked out 10 good slaves and then he asked them to choose a bad slave under his conditions but it ended up that those good slaves died because they had chosen others and proved they wouldn't be obedient to the master. When we entered the plantation, we found our former slaves dead. Afterwards, just thinking that this was not even close to the actual human rights violations taking place, it was enough to emotional drain me and make me feel like I wasn't even a human. For feeling this, it made me feel fortunate and also make me want to treat every person with respect and dignity, even those that annoy me or treat others wrongly. Although it is difficult, I feel like it is what we are called to do.

My Life is being colored with colors of love, justice and peace

2012-01-10T22:45:00.000-06:00

Today I was so inspired by the places we visited, by the people we met, and by the stories we heard. Visiting the old first white house was a great experience,besides the great building with its attractive furniture, I met that great woman from Czhech Republic. I heard so many stories from here, and here sweetniss touched my heart. She mentioned that justice should be everywhere, and that still nations are fighting for their rights, that what makes me think about the situation in the Middle East, where countries like Syria, Egypt,Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia are fighting to get their rights and live in a decomcratic nation full of freedom.My life was colored today with beautiful crayons of beauty, love, care, justice, tolerance, and peace. After going to a musuem and being a slave for just a couple of minutes, made my day very emotional , I almost cry from everything I saw, I could feel how African- American suffered from the moment they were brought from Africa util the civil rights movement. I could imagine the scene, it was so tough.
Ali El Ghandour

Timeline in the Civil Rights Memorial Center

2012-01-10T22:33:00.004-06:00

In front of the Civil Rights Memorial Center, there is a circular black granite table. It was created by Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya Lin. The table records the names of the movement in lines that like the hands of a clock. it is a fountain and the water emerges from the center of the table’s and flows across the top.

The timeline on the Memorial begins with the Supreme court’s 1954 decision outlawing school segregation and end with Martin Luther King’s death in 1968. Lin left a blank space between the first and last entries on the Memorial timeline. The reason why she left a space between these events to signify that the struggle for human rights began well before 1954 and continues to this day.

Lin hope that people can have a connection to the Civil Rights Movement while they are putting their hands in the water and touch the words on the table.

Edmund Pettus Bridge

2012-01-10T21:39:00.003-06:00

This evening our class lined up two-by-two and walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama; the mood was very somber and reflective. As I reached the middle of the arched bridge I looked down at the long straight road which some 50 years ago was the setting of one of the more memorable events of the Civil Rights Movement. An event referred to as "Bloody Sunday" where Selma Police and State Troopers gassed, beat, trampled, and jailed peaceful protesters marching for voting rights. As I stared down at the street before me I couldn't help but imagine the thoughts and emotions that must have passed through those marchers as they stared down at the menacing Police force before them. It was a powerful moment I'll not soon forget.

16th Street Baptist Church

2012-01-10T00:47:00.000-06:00

Before we made our journey from Birmingham to Montgomery, we stopped at the 16th Street Baptist Church to receive a tour of the building and to understand the history of this special place. This place touched me in very indescribable ways.

It was very eerie for me to enter the church because I knew that four little girls died during the bombing of the church in the 60s. The thing that was very inspiring was the two stain glass windows that each had a striking image and an amazing story behind each of them.

There was one stain glass window that had a picture of Jesus and during the bombings, only the face of Christ was destroyed but no other part of the window was damaged. It symbolized that even though the vision of the civil rights movement may try to be stopped, the body is strong to uphold the vision of the movement. This was so impactful to me because it was truly a miracle and a symbol at the same time that this occurred. Although evil may disrupt, love will always overcome.

The other piece of stain glass art was put in after the rebuilding of the church and it was an african american man in representation to Jesus Christ for all of the hardships Jesus faced as well as the African American person has endured. On the right hand (depending on how you look at it) the hand was pushing away oppression while the left hand was facing you symbolizing forgiveness. It seems that these are the principal ideas of the movement: to defeat oppression, forgive those that are violent and treat them with love and respect.

Monday's Thoughts

2012-01-10T00:14:00.005-06:00

Today was quite a busy day! There was so much information to process …but it was very intellectually stimulating and inspiring. I’ve found that the more I learn, the more questions tend to pop up in my mind!

We left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. for the same neighborhood we visited yesterday, this time to tour the 16^th Street Baptist Church.

This place was nothing short of powerful! We started the tour with a short documentary about the church's history and significance. Founded in 1883, the church was resented by whites who believed that “no black church should be this beautiful.” It quickly became the prominent center for black events, as well as an important center for the Alabama Freedom Movement. It was in this sanctuary that Martin Luther King, Jr. mobilized blacks and spread the strategy of nonviolence; his work at this church also helped build his confidence for the later March on Washington, D.C.

In 1963, the church was bombed. Four girls, changing into their choir robes for a special Youth Day service, were killed in the blast. This event, the first to result in deaths, led many whites to sympathize with the civil rights cause; even those who still believed in segregation regarded the bombing as closer to an act of terrorism. Among the heavy damages to the building was one eerie discovery: a stained glass window depicting Jesus Christ remained intact except for the face.


(restoration)

Not until fourteen years later was Robert Chambliss, a Ku Klux Klansman, tried as a suspect in the bombing, found guilty, and convicted. Two additional people were found guilty some time later.

After the documentary, we went down to the very part of the church most heavily damaged in the blast. This was a very solemn experience; from the pictures on the walls, it was clear that the 1963 bombing continues to have a dramatic effect on the church. I came across a framed poem that moved me:

After our time in the church, we were free to explore the downtown area and find some lunch. Carolyn, Linda, and I took a walking tour starting in Ingram Park, where we learned about the “Selective Buying Campaign” that blacks used in order to place economic pressure to white business owners that discriminated. An interesting part of the movement was the decision not to purchase new clothing for Easter Sunday, opting instead to wear old overalls to church on that day.

We then embarked for the second city of our trip - Montgomery, Alabama. Once there, we visited the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, on the Troy University campus. Touring this building helped me to understand the important role of Montgomery in the shaping of the Civil Rights Movement. Because of her calm refusal to leave her bus seat, Rosa Parks was able to spark revolutionary fervor. Her arrest led to the incredibly organized Montgomery bus boycott and subsequent revolutionary movements.

One thing I found particularly interesting was that Parks actually wasn’t arrested for forcing bus integration; in fact, Parks was only fined for disobeying the bus driver’s instructions to leave her seat. Only the very front bus seats were reserved for whites, rendering Parks’ middle seat well into “black” territory. Parks bravely chose to use her experience to prove that race segregation on city buses was unconstitutional, because it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14^th Amendment.

After touring the museum, we split up into two groups and took a walking tour of downtown Birmingham. We previewed many of the sites that we will visit tomorrow, such as the State Capitol, the Confederate White House, and the former Greyhound Bus Station. Unfortunately, we won't be able to tour the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Tour, because of a sudden funeral scheduling.

This tour was interesting because it showed the juxtaposition between the legacies of the white experience and the black experience of the Civil Rights Movement; opulent financial monoliths exist right next to historical sites of incomprehensible struggle and strength.

Dexter Avenue Baptist Church

Alabama State Capitol

I didn’t know quite what to make of it, but it definitely didn’t feel right. I look forward to tomorrow’s tours in order to make sense of the different perspectives, although I don’t plan on coming to any definite conclusions. There is always more to learn!

After hours of exploring, we were all hungry! For dinner all eighty of us ate at Dreamland BBQ, a soul-food haven in the heart of Montgomery.

Being a vegetarian, there were some delicious options… but the banana cream pudding was simply beautiful. :)

As I said before, there was so much information to process today. I am so grateful for the opportunity to immerse myself in the history of this movement and soak up all the knowledge I can!

What is the most impressive about me in Day 3?

2012-01-09T23:40:00.003-06:00

I would say… The Rosa Parks Library & Museum

The Rosa Parks Library & Museum is located in Montgomery, Alabama. The Museum was a time machine took us back to the time on Thursday, December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks was arrested because she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. In response, the African-American community started bus boycott for 381 days. The bus exhibit in the museum was interactive and amazing. It was realistic.

At the end of the visiting in the museum, there was a video which is from the President Clinton. He described Rosa Parks “She helped to set us all free."
Here is a part of the speech:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1003345n

2012-01-09T23:07:00.001-06:00

This trip has already been a life-changing experience, and
it’s only been a few days. I’m in the Social Justice LLC, so this trip goes
along wonderfully with all the things we have discussed in the class. We have
sat through the church service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, went through the MLK
Historical Site, saw the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, listened to
speakers, etc. Yesterday we went through the Kelly Ingram Park. It was a very
weird feeling. It was so peaceful and pretty, but I stood there thinking about
the things that happen in the park years ago. Police let dogs after the protesters
and firefighters sprayed them with hoses. It’s awful what authorities did, but
it’s such a unique experience to be in the exact location where all those people
were standing up for the rights of human beings. Today, we toured Montgomery
and we got to the location of the center of the town. It was a very pretty area
with a beautiful fountain and these nice buildings surrounding it. The
wonderful tour guide went on to say how that same center of the town, years
ago, was the location where slaves were auctioned off. That just hit me. We
were standing in the exact spot where slaves were completely humiliated and
stripped down of rights to be auctioned off, and here we are just walking around
the city as a tourist. I guess that shows just how privileged we are, but it’s
so sad to think of the horrible things that went on in the exact spot I was
standing. Slavery was a terrible, terrible thing, along with the racism that
existed and still exists today after slavery is gone. But this trip is such
wonderful experience and I enjoy learning so much about the Civil Rights Movement. It
really helps bring things to life for me. I’m looking forward to the rest of
the trip, I’m sure it will only get better!

16th Street Baptist Church & Rosa Parks Museum

2012-01-09T22:51:00.000-06:00

It's amazing we can actually be in the church and be so close to the history.

The "bus movie" in the Rosa Parks Museum shows everyone what happened at that historical time point, which I though is really. But we are not allowed to take pictures inside.

I like the walking tour also, I am looking forward to getting into the State Capital tomorrow.

Journal 3 - Day 3

2012-01-09T22:46:00.009-06:00

Montgomery, AL 10:13P.M. Day 3

I woke up at 8:30 A.M. this morning; I wasn’t too tired and was looking forward to today’s trip. We finished the movie, and it was a good one that totally reflected how American loves to help people out no matter what their race, age, size, and talent. One thing I was impressed by the movie was that Big Mike wasn’t been told off by “Mom” after the car crash; in vice versa, she tried to comfort him and not even yell at him. If she were my mom, I would get be in big trouble. Isn’t it cultural difference?

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church - Birmingham, AL

Four girls were killed in 1963

After a while, we arrived at Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. Four girls were killed in the basement of the church on September 15, 1963, when the KKK gang bombed the church without warning. It was the center of life for Birmingham’s African American Community in the past. It was organized in 1873 as the first Colored Baptist Church of Birmingham, Alabama. Because of the segregation, the church and other black churches in Birmingham served for many purposes, It functioned as a meeting place, social center and lecture hall for a variety of activities important to the lives of the city’s black citizens. We watched a documentary video in the main hall and historical photos in the basement of the church. After the church, I had lunch at Yeh Manh which is a Jamaica food restaurant, the food there was really good, but I think the curry chicken with rice was a little salty.

Rosa Park Museum and Library - Montgomery, AL

Bus Video in Rosa Park Museum

After lunch, we headed to Rosa Parks Museum where is located in Troy University, Montgomery, AL. I was impressed by the bus video. Rosa Park was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man at that moment, since it was like a time machine which brought us back to December 1, 1955. The information was in detail, I also amazed by their own-made transportation car pool system. Without a well-planning, civil right movement will not be succeeded. After finished the museum, we had a down town tour. Dinner was taken place in Dreamland BBQ, the ultimate combo plate was delicious, and so that I could try everything a little bit. We also had group discussion in hotel conference room, it was an amazing chance to share/ learn from each other for the day. I think it is the best part of the day. I am looking forward to tomorrow’s trip!

Rosa Parks Museum

2012-01-09T22:28:00.002-06:00

The Rosa Parks Museum sparked something in me I never really
noticed as much before; I have been yearning to learn about the women in
history. Women made such a great impact in a lot of history, but we never hear
of it. I was so proud to see Rosa Parks story told as her taking a stand rather
than just being an old Black woman who didn’t get up. It is very empowering for
me to hear about the women in history.

Sunday in Atlanta

2012-01-09T22:08:00.003-06:00

I really didn't know what to expect from our trip in the deep south before it started. Luckily, I have already learned a lot about the Civil Rights Movement and the culture of the South. We were in Atlanta on Sunday and I got to spend a lot of time visiting historical sites about Martin Luther King, Jr. I especially enjoyed touring the original Ebeneezer Baptist Church and attending a service in the new church across the street. After learning about and discussing the church's history and seeing a contemporary service, I was able to see the impact of faith and religion in organizing the Civil Rights Movement.

This Amazing Trip Is $tarting To Look Pretty Darn Cheap

2012-01-09T21:13:00.008-06:00

You'll have to forgive me before you start reading my post because I have never blogged before and am not quite sure what it is all about. But already, this trip is providing me with so many opportunities to see, hear, smell, taste, touch, and try things that are completely new to me.

It is only our fourth day on the trip and its starting to feel like I've ripped off the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Let me see if I can explain this. You know when you go to a store when they are having a mega sale and you look at your receipt after-wards and realized you saved a ton of money, but you also feel kind of guilty cause it's almost like you are ripping off the store by buying the products so cheap? That's what it feels like to me. I have learned and experienced so much already in just four days, that I feel like I should have paid more money for this trip. College students pay hundreds to thousands of dollars on a single course, yet this trip only costs $425! Before going on this trip I felt like that was a lot of money, but after all the things I've seen so far, it was totally worth it!

I can't wait for what tomorrow brings and am looking forward to getting the hang this whole blogging thing!

Day 3--Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama

2012-01-09T21:00:00.002-06:00

Our good-looking group in front of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church with its current pastor, Rev. Arthur Price.

Virgil, Paul, Jackie, Nick, and Jodi, and a message that will fuel them throughout their careers and lives!

The interior of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a church we have never been able to see inside before! Thanks for all of their hospitality!

Group 3 takes a break from the best walking tour of Montgomery ever to be given for a picture on the steps of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. was the senior pastor.

Best Trip Ever

2012-01-09T09:41:00.002-06:00

Four years ago when my friend January Boten came to me with the idea for a spring break trip for students that would get them thinking about social justice and give them an alternative to the typical spring break. It is hard to believe that idea could have blossomed into this amazing experience. We are on the eighth rendition of the trip and I must say the evolution is simply amazing. The amazing originators of the trip- Tim Kenney, Katie Lashua, Chris Neilson, and Sarah Gonzalez would be amazed by the work and effort that has gone into expanding their idea and deepening the experience. Tony Och, Janna Casperson, and Ann Watson worked hard to make improvements and now this year's coordinators have taken the trip another step further. Mathias Hughey, Virgil Ward, Sarah Tweedale, Mary Wolf, Elsa Kraus, Nicholas Severson, Jackie Lee, and Paul Williams have worked tirelessly to expand the research on the learning outcomes of the participants and they have also expanded volume of things we see and people we meet. All of this work of over four years has brought us to this wonderful trip which has been the best trip ever. Thank you to everyone who has made this possible!

Jodi

Journal 2 - Birmingham, AL

2012-01-09T01:40:00.003-06:00

Birmingham, AL 01:07AM Jan 9, 2012

Ebenzer Baptist Church - Brimingham, AL

I woke up early today and had a breakfast before heading to the Ebenezer Baptist Church. It seemed like the church was newly built and everything in the hall were in good quality. There was a female Black choir group on the stage, and they sang just simply fabulous with perfect pitch and emotions. The spiritual songs are full of dynamics and passions, I was totally motivated too.For now, I deeply understood how churches influenced the civil right movement on organizing protests in early 20th century. After this, we had a group photo, then I had a glance on the fire department on the same street. Once, our tour guide was ready in the fire department and then she brought us to the Martin Luther king’s Birth home which was amazing that it still preserved tons of Dr. King’s used stuffs in the house. It was also interesting to know that the low-class, middle-class, and high-class houses were all located on the same avenue. After lunch, we were heading to Birmingham Civil Rights Institute which has rich details on revealing slices of black and whites life in Alabama from the late 1800s to present. There was a series of galleries tells the sories of daily life for African- American in the state and the nation and how ere the different from the lives of white people that took for granted. Although it was amazing to see that information in the Civil Right institute, I decided to walk to the Birmingham Public library.

Brimingham Public Library , Alabama

It is located on 21st street, where is behind the Wells Fargo building. It was worth to be there, since the old public library is a classic architecture, which is like the Harvard University Library. The New public library is mainly made of glasses. It was beautiful to see those architectures in Birmingham, AL. During the dinner time, I was totally stuffed by steaks and fried Chicken. Thanks to school that dinner was funded by the foundation and the food was really good. We had a guest speaker, Pamela King, History Professor at University of Alabama, Birmingham in the hotel conference room. It was a long day, but it was very fun and a lot to see !

Beautiful Memories

2012-01-08T22:27:00.000-06:00

Being an international student from Lebanon in the Civil Rights Pilgrimage is an honoring experience I won't forget in my whole life. I am here to learn more about the U.S culture and the trip is giving me so many lessons. One of the dreams or goals that was in my list is to go to an African-American church before I die, and now that dream came true. As being a vocal-performance minor, hearing all the beautiful voices and songs touched my heart , and I loved the friendly people in the church , and I felt their love and how humble they are. I look forward to learn more about American culture, meet new people and friends, talk about my culture as well, and create beautiful memories that will remain in my memory.

2012-01-08T22:24:00.004-06:00

Our group outside the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, where we were treated to real Southern hospitality and felt so welcomed throughout the church service!

The student coordinators of the Civil Rights Pilgrimage with Freedom Rider Charles Person, who traveled from Washington, D.C. to Jackson, MS in protest of bus segregation. Mr. Person gave a riveting talk on his experience with the Freedom Rides, his service in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, and other aspects of his life and efforts toward equality.

All of us on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage with Freedom Rider Charles Person in the Morris Brown College Auditorium.

Outside the World of Coca Cola in Downtown Atlanta.

Outside the CNN World Headquarters in downtown Atlanta, Georgia.

Religion in the Civil Rights Movement

2012-01-08T22:13:00.002-06:00

The Church served as the symbol of the Civil Rights Movement. The Ebenezer Baptist Church is a spiritual home for more than 121 years. In 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr., became a pastor of this church.
In the church, it was a community people may express themselves beyond the power of the white people.
Day 2, we visited the Ebenezer Baptist Church.
I realized that religion is so powerful to everyone. When we hand-in-hand to sing a song in the church, there is no more barrier between people no matter what our skin color. This is a miracle made by the god.

vicious cycle

2012-01-08T03:23:00.002-06:00

Day 1

Overview of Charles Pearson

The talk given by Charles Pearson was haunting and moving. He spoke of the Civil Right Movement in a way that a history book could never emulate. Everything from his mannerism, word choice, body language and humor gave a sense of depth to him and his experiences. Most importantly, those traits solidified the notion that the person who was sitting in front of me was authentic and had fought for something very real. To me, Mr. Pearson’s account of the Civil Rights movement highlighted why it is important to remember the lessons of the past and why it is important to continue fighting the inequalities of today in hopes of a better tomorrow.

Got me thinking…about myself

Mr. Pearson’s talk also helped me to put my own previous experiences and struggles into context. Growing up as a second generation Hmong U.S. citizen is nothing to scuff at but at the same time it is nothing to expect praise for. Simply, it is one among an array of a million different ways to grow up today in America. This upbringing had its ups and downs; nonetheless it taught me many lessons and has forever changed me both for the good and the bad.

The early years, enter Hmong culture:

Hmong culture is a patriarchal culture that places emphasis on lineage. Traditionally, it is known to primarily focus on the needs of the “Elite” class at the cost of the lower class. This inequality would always be at the center of my thoughts as a child. While growing up I often thought, why did I have to give up 12+ hours a day in the summer every summer working on ginseng farms to only help the “Elite” class of the community get richer knowing that they would never even say “Thank You” let alone return the favor? Why did people have to enjoy being indentured servants to an elite class and their kids? As I grew, I learned the secret. The elite players had simply started the game better off than everyone else and now they had the game conned by holding all the cards.

Could you get on the bus?

Today during Mr. Pearson’s speech, we were asked about whether or not we would be willing to get on a bus and fight against the injustices we saw. This reminded me of an important choice, I still have left to make. It is a decision all Hmong graduates make. It is whether or not to return to the Hmong community upon graduation. On one hand if you return, you will not only be subject to all aspects of an organization you hate but you will knowingly become a part of it. Being only sustained by the dream that one day you can change the system from the inside out but fearing the nightmare of being devoured by the very same system. On the other hand, you can simply walk away from everything about the Hmong community and saving yourself any additional pain associated with the community. Leaving the existing system to rip through another lot of unsuspecting kids and hoping someone from their generation has the will to ride the bus and return to the Hmong community and be the change you and they will hope to see.

And to answer Pearson's question, I simply do not think I will be able to get on the bus and return to the Hmong community to become the change I want to see. So, I ask everyone do you feel that this is the incorrect choice?

January 7 Atlanta

2012-01-08T00:17:00.002-06:00

After the the longest bus trip I've ever have, finally we reached Atlanta. The sky was so pretty, cannot help to have a good mood to welcome our first day of the pilgrimage.

Our first stop was the CNN Center. What I found the most interesting is that, the escalator we took at the beginning of the “inside CNN Studio Tour" actually is the longest stand-on escalator in the world. It's also the first I saw a real recording studio。

Then we walked through the Olympic Park heading to the Coca-Cola Museum. I've heard lots of stories about the secret formula of Coca-Cola and It's so cool that I can finally... Well, I didn't even get a scan; however, we were so close. The formula is in the huge strongbox right in front of me. Just wondering is it really necessary to make it such big?

Finally we met with Mr. Charles Pearson and heard the speech. I was trying very hard to follow; however, to be honest, it's still a little hard for me. I remember he talked about nicknames people used to call him, which gives me a better view of how black people were treated at that time. Also he talked about the paths. People who got rich or been success don't create paths for other people to climb. I guess it's similar as the privilege we talked about in the class. And it's a big deal in today's society.

Journal 1 - Atlanta

2012-01-07T23:28:00.003-06:00

Atlanta, GA 12:17AM Pretty Sleepy

So far it was a really fun trip, I really love it. The Civil Right group left from Eau Claire, Wisconsin yesterday around 4 pm and had the ice breaking activity to know each other more. When I told my partner that I have eaten gater’s tail in Thailand, She was freaked out.

I went to CNN Studio tour this morning, and I was impressed about the resort-styled headquarter of CNN. There was a very long escalator from the ground floor to 7th floor. I learnt that there was actually cheating screen in the studio room and the news reporter was also funny behind the screen. I think the CNN Office was similar to Google Headquarter in Silicon Valley, they both have lots of computer working stations, but Google’s one has free drinks and food in every office. After that I went to Underground Mall, they were 99% African-Americans, I think it was like China Town. I headed back to Coca-Cola Museum after the mall. I didn’t go into the museum because lacking of time, so I decided to go to the gift shop. Afterwards, we went to Morris Brown College for a speech. The speaker, Charles Pearson, talked about the buses issues and what had happened with KKK gang. It was interesting to know more about the civil right issue and he also distributed some sort of book covers which made me impressed.

Day 1 - Atlanta, Georgia

2012-01-07T21:51:00.003-06:00

Hurray! After spending 22 hours overnight on the bus, we finally arrived at Atlanta, Georgia. To start the civil rights pilgrimage, we took the “Inside CNN Studio Tour” to visit the CNN global headquarter.

We've learned the production of CNN such as how to make a news program.

Later, we spent our free time to go to Downtown Atlanta - the Underground Mall.

Also, we visited the Coca-Cola Museum

And got a little bottle of Coke

Of course, the purpose of the journey is about the civil rights movement. At the last stop of the trip today, we had Mr. Charles Pearson to give a speech in the Morris Brown College.
From the speech, we can see that Mr. Pearson is a fun and smart. He supposed that non-violence is more effectively in civil rights protests.

Can't wait for tomorrow!

Bystander activism

2011-04-06T03:47:00.002-05:00

So that last post, the anger, is how I walked away from the last museum. This last weekend, I went to the United Council Building Unity conference. We saw Brother Ali perform, who restored a little of my faith in the power of love and music and revolution. And we hosted a workshop on feminist leadership. During that workshop, which was awesome, a fair amount of the discussion centered around strategies for responding to people using discriminatory language. I wrote up some of the suggestions here, I hope they are of interest / useful to people.

Make them do the math.
This trick is from the “R word” campaign. Most people already know that the word they used is offensive – they just weren’t thinking about it. So you don’t need to explain it to them, just draw their attention to it. For example:
Speaker: “That’s so retarded, I can’t believe she did that”
Bystander: “You said the ‘R’ word”
The speaker will be forced to back track a little in their head, figure out what ‘R’ word you’re referring too and why you brought it up. This way, you can effectively have them tell themselves “oh, I said ‘retarded’, and this person is drawing attention to it because it is offensive.”

Get in, make your point, get out.
The vast majority of good you do as a bystander is done in your first response. The common follow-up discussion/argument where the speaker defends themselves is not, generally, very fruitful. So once you’ve made your point, let it go. For example:
Speaker: “French class was gay today”
Bystander: “Please don’t use gay to mean ‘stupid’, it is heterosexist”
Speaker: “Don’t be so uptight, it’s just harmless slang”
Bystander: “I’ve said how I feel. You can make your own moral decisions”
I especially like that last line, because it shifts the responsibility to them. In the case of a particularly offensive comment, or a particularly obnoxious speaker, you can also make your point and then walk away, remove yourself from the situation. This is a good strategy for your piece of mind, if you are worried you won’t be able to stay cool in the face of someone defending their offensive remarks.

Own it.
This works when you are an ally, not a member of the targeted group. Rather than criticizing the speaker, share your own struggle to be less oppressive. For example, if a male speaker interrupts a female speaker, a male bystander might say “I find that, as a man, I sometimes interrupt women when they are speaking without really thinking about it. I know that is sexist of me, so I try and make a conscious effort to avoid it.”

Use humor.
This is one of those great simple pieces of advice that’s really not very helpful at all. Personally, I struggle to come up with a witty way to address speech in the heat of the moment. But if you can, more power to you. I do find this works better with close friends who share your values and are already aware of your feelings on the language they are using.

Respond to the behavior, not the person.
Don’t invite an argument about whether the speaker is a bad person. Just identify the consequences of their actions. So don’t say:
Bystander: “You’re a racist”
Instead say:
Bystander: “When you say that word, it sounds racist”
You can even go a step further and pre-defend the speaker:
Speaker: “Check out that slut’s tight ass”
Bystander: “I know you don’t really think about women that way, perhaps you shouldn’t speak about them that way either”

Sandwich compliments.
Begin and end your response with compliments for the speaker. This kinda cheesy trick totally works to help avoid defensive reactions.
Bystander: “I really respect you as a student leader. Please try and avoid using racist language. I know you’re a better person than that.”

Furious

2011-04-06T03:47:00.001-05:00

I walked out of the Civil Rights museum absolutely furious. I was mad because we kept being told that you can kill the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream. But I think that’s basically bullshit. I look at America after the murder of MLK and I see barely any progress made fighting racial injustice. The conspiracy theorists say that King was murdered because he started talking about economic justice. Personally, I don’t buy that – I think he was killed by a random racist like everyone knew he would be sooner or later and it’s just coincidence that it happened when he was working on the garbage workers’ strike. But that doesn’t change the big picture, which is that economic oppression has always been the fundamental means of racist oppression in America, and the economic system survived slavery and integration completely intact. We think a lot about racism in terms of people calling people bad names. But the way racism manifests itself in America today is primarily through wealth. Wealth gives white people access to housing, access to education, and protection from imprisonment. And we aren’t even close to dreaming the dream about addressing the injustice of wealth. Further than we were when they killed the dreamer. Sure, the 50s were the height of McCarthyism. But there actually existed a real communist and socialist movement in the US. Today, the moderate left can’t even include a public option in health care.

The Reverend Kyles’ speech frustrated me. The message that we can dream whatever we want I find, frankly, American bullshit. It matters if our dreams enrich ourselves, or enrich those most harmed by society. It matters if our dreams are for technology and wealth or if our dreams are for humanity and the happiness of others. A bunch of privileged people exercising their privilege to follow their own individual vision of success doesn’t sound to me anything like the dream that King died for. I don’t want to disrespect the man, but his speech sounded to me like empty self-help jargon. Where was social justice in it all?

And there was George W. Bush and John McCain on the walls of the Civil Rights museum as “famous friends.” The modern Republican Party was born of the Civil Rights era, the Goldwater Conservative movement, enacted by the GOP hero Ronald Reagan was fundamentally a racist movement which preyed on white backlash to the gains of the Civil Rights. When Republicans talk about “States’ Rights” they’re dog whistling those people who visit the State Capitol in Montgomery and think of the Golden Age of the Antebellum South. And their policies are fundamentally and inescapably designed to reinforce the racist system of wealth distribution. And yet they claim the Civil Rights legacy. And we’re not supposed to call it like we see it, and it’s all so complicated and nuanced now and we have to be bipartisan and work together and certainly the other party isn’t worth a damn either really. But as long as the face of racism in America is “Bull” Connor then the head racist, former President of the most racist party leading this racist nation can visit that sacred place where we lost Martin Luther King and get his photo on the wall as a “friend” of the movement.
I don’t want to end this post by being all reasonable and backing down to some reconciled position. Right now, I’m just angry at those assholes that pay lip service to the civil rights movement while they work day and night to ensure the system of economic injustice is strengthened to their advantage.

Minnijean in Little Rock.

2011-04-06T03:46:00.001-05:00

I found Minnijean a more effective speaker in Little Rock than when we saw her in Eau Claire. I especially liked what she had to say about the power of non-violence – which she described as the most powerful force in the world. Earlier (I forget which city) a number of us had been discussing the possibility of non-violence. I contend that when we think of violence as the only answer to certain problems, we under-estimate it’s cost. The Second World War is the most common example of a time it was necessary to use violence. But it cost the allies tens of millions of lives, billions of dollars and ten years to win the Second World War. I’m not saying that in 1936 (when the communists entered the war in Spain – the US government being five years late) we had the ability to confront the threat of fascism with non-violence. But I think if we dedicated a fraction of the material resources we dedicate to violence to researching non-violence we’d be able to build that powerful a force. Non-violence has had significant triumphs despite having essentially no resources.

The thing that keeps coming up though is the dedication required. The years of struggle for the Civil Rights movement and the number of people that were willing to risk death for the cause dwarfs any movement today in the US. Reading “Warriors Don’t Cry” I was struck by how much more courage the Little Rock Nine showed in the face of adversity than I’ve ever been called on to face in my life. Again, tens of millions of people were willing to sacrifice their lives to stop fascism. Firefighters risk their lives for others every day, it’s certainly not implausible that with a change in culture people would be willing to risk their lives to, for example, challenge dictatorships and spread democracy. This is a distant dream, I know. But I think it’s important to understand that the idea of non-violence as a force used on an international scale really isn’t that impractical, at least compared to the high cost of violence.

A couple of other thoughts from Minnijean. As she was talking, I realized how much the repressive state apparatus of the 50s and 60s has been replaced by ideological state apparatus. Repressive state apparatus is very vulnerable to non-violence, as we see. But ideological state apparatus (I’m looking at you, news media) is far harder to challenge. It seems like the left is yet to come up with an effective response to the massive propaganda machine of the right. The main thing I took from Minnijean, however, and we saw this in other women such as Ella Baker in Sisters in the Struggle, is a systems approach. I forgot who asked the very important question about the segregation of the education today, but I thought Minnijean’s answer was fascinating. She responded immediately by talking about housing. Similarly, I’m reading some articles by Angela Davis about abolishing prisons, and when people ask her how to do that she responds by talking about the education system. The point being we aren’t going to be able to solve our problems without understanding the way all of the systems of society interact together.

Visual Storytelling

2011-03-29T22:28:00.012-05:00

Because I am a very visual person (and because others have already done much of the general storytelling) I would like to share my experience through the pictures I took. The full album (or the 200 that Facebook would let me post in one album) is here and should be available for all to view.

I went on this trip to learn more about civil rights movement (or one of the many in this world) and to become motivated and inspired by the actions of people before me and the actions of those still continuing that struggle for rights. I was not disappointed. I learned so much and saw so many people and organizations working for a good cause while on this trip. I was emboldened by this experience to do more and, I hope, others were too. If nothing else, it was a learning experience - every single one of us took something away this spring break.

And now for the images, as promised. I shall stick to one image for each day (though it will be hard to choose) so as not to overload:

CNN World Headquarters ~ Atlanta, GA

Original Ebenezer Baptist Church ~ Atlanta, GA

Inside the Capitol Building ~ Montgomery, AL

A portion of the group underneath the (in)famous bridge from Selma before beginning to pick up trash ~ Selma, AL

Gorgeous masks in a shop in NOLA, a place whose fascinating culture is richer than I ever knew ~New Orleans, LA

While I could have chosen an image of some of the gorgeous architecture of NOLA or the barrenness that still remains after Katrina, I thought this fine tour guide deserved some recognition ~ New Orleans, LA

We visited Central High School, the place of so much anger and uproar when the Little Rock Nine tried merely to go to school ~ Little Rock, AR

One of our last stops was the Heifer International site which had so much wonderful information and motivation - this is a diorama of a green, sustainable, efficient and sanitary set-up of an agricultural plot ~ Little Rock, AR

Final thoughts

2011-03-28T23:31:00.002-05:00

I will never forget this trip. If I have not stated it enough, I was greatly affected to the deepest parts of my soul. Corny, I know, but so true. I hope to repeat some of the visits with my loved ones, and I am really grateful to those who made it happen. The coordinators worked very hard, and local donors gave us a ton of money as I later found out. I am also pleased to have met so many UWEC students and now I don't feel so alone when I walk around campus. I am honored to have met them and hope that we can continue to grow together into the best human beings that we can be.

Final leg of the trip

2011-03-28T23:31:00.001-05:00

The next day, we traveled on to New Orleans, with a wonderful, well-earned stop in Gulfport, Mississippi. We ate Italian and spent about an hour on the beach. I have now inserted my feet and legs (up to the calf) into the Gulf of Mexico. Woohoo! Just a taste of the pending northern summer and a nice reprieve from the emotional stress of the previous day.

New Orleans was wonderful. In short, a very interesting bus tour lead us from the most damaged areas in the 9th ward (Hurricaine Katrina), to the wonderful Garden district. I was beginning to bond more and more with fellow passengers and one of them happened to know the area. This was a wonderful blessing as we went to local places for live jazz and great food. We also danced our butts off and met some amazing people. Lastly for this area, we went on a tour of the swamps in those boats with the big fans and got to hold baby alligators.

Little Rock, AK: visited the Little Rock 9 museum and walked to the school. Holy cow. That school is built like a castle. It was a wonderful depiction of architecture in my opinion. Too bad they did this for the white high schoolers, and left the black ones in the dust. Separate but equal?! My butt! The best part of this visit was that an unexpected visitor showed up! Well, a surprise to me. Her name was Minnie Jean Brown Trickey. One of the 9. She gave a wonderful set of responses to our questions. So cool.

We went to dinner at the Clinton School of Public Service and heard a panel of students discuss why they were there and what their ambitions were. The next day, we went to Heifer Int'l, and the Clinton Library. All of this takes up many more paragraphs. I wish I could have seen it all but we did not have enough time.

Lastly, we headed to Memphis. The museum tour was amazing and definitely requires more than one day to read it all. I didn't make it across the street where they talk about the assasination or its conspiracies. The best part was getting to hear from Rev. Kyles who, along with Rev. Abernathy, spent the last hour of Dr. King's life shootin' the bull in the hotel before intending to go to Kyle's house for dinner. Rev. Abernathy is now passed on, so Kyles is the last to talk about those moments. It was interesting to hear of a personal side of Dr. King, and the events that unfolded--yelling down to Jesse Jackson in the parking lot, etc...Kyles was the only one on the balcony with King when he was shot.

We walked over to Beale street for dinner. It was freezing to me and I think the week finally caught up to me. I was physically and emotionally exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep, not even to put food in my belly. After a movie started on the bus, I took ibuprofen PM and passed out.

Selma

2011-03-28T23:29:00.001-05:00

Next, we went to Selma where Bloody Sunday occurred. This was by far the most emotional day of the trip. This is due to the fact that we were lucky to be able to go to the Slavery Reenactment Museum, which I will discuss in a bit.

First, we met with a woman named Joanne Bland who was 11 years old in 1965. She was there on that fateful Sunday when peaceful marchers set out across Edmund Pettus Bridge to walk the 50 or so miles to the capital (Montgomery). The police beat them back without mercy. She turned out okay since she was not in the very front. By this age, she had been arrested 14 documented times. The leaders of the movement felt that putting children in the front lines of the movement would give more attention to their cause, especially as the media recorded the police assaults with the water and dogs.

Joanne was an interesting woman who was intimidating at first with her sacastic, kind of in-your-face attitude, but she calmed down. Later in the day, we had a wonderful talk for about 20 minutes while she smoked a cigarette, and proved to be a wise, but very tired lady who felt like she was always fighting for the civil rights of her people. She lamented that it was difficult to get the young people of the community to be passionate about the society they lived in, and that many did not understand or appreciate their heritage, or the hard work of the movement participants. She hoped that our interests in the local heritage would be contagious and that someday, they could continue the legacy, and at least maintain the museums for the future.

She took us on a bus tour of the older parts of Selma and pointed out where the whites lived on one side of the street, and the blacks on other. If you were a black person on the white side, you'd better be working and that's it. We visited the Voting Rights Museum which was intersting. It focused a bit more on those who were killed in the movement, and also had an old voting booth (very confusing to me on how I would vote). There was also a jail cell that a lot of the students crammed into to get an idea for what the movement participants felt. I missed this but it sounded very surreal to those involved. Across the street was a park established by the museum and students gathered litter and roamed/rested. Later, we marched across the bridge as a reenactment. Very moving.

Earlier in the day, we visited the Slavery Reenactment Museum. No one knew what was going to happen as it was newly opened. I suggested in the future now that the coordinators are more prepared, to think about warning students. This is what happened. For me, it was very painful. For those who are squeamish, please feel free to by-pass the next paragraph. I tell of a reenactment experience where we were to endure an idea of what it must have felt like to be a freed person being turned into a slave. I also mention my very emotional reactions.

We arrived on the bus, and immediatelly, museum staff began yelling at us, using terms such as "bucks" and "wenches". We were then told to line up outside of the building with our backs to the wall, and to put out our hands and open our mouths. We soon got the picture. I was unable to participate. I was very choked up and when the staff member (man in his 70's?) walked to each person and "inspected" us, I could not do what he told me to do. My arms were like lead. I could not look up. I tried to participate, but it was too much. I completely empathized with the slaves, perhaps too much. It also triggered some of the cult stuff for me as these activities were similar to how Rama (cult leader) treated my peers and me. The feeling of being regarded as less than a valuable human being came back strongly; I felt like I was a child, unable to control my fate. I felt the shocking trigger of feeling worthless and small, all over again. After being frozen for about 30 seconds, I ran away. I found a dark, musty closet and wept until I could weep no more. One of coordinators offered me comfort and we went for a short walk. She was very sweet and I really appreciated it.

Eventually, I was able to re-join the group who was inside, receiving a very colorful presentation of African strengths, and the continent's strong influence on humanity. Acknowledgements were made of the influence on future generations of slaves such as in music and religion, as well as the fact that slavery was a common practice in many African cultures. However, the main distinctions are that many of these slaves were treated with much more respect and dignity than were the slaves of those with European descent. Next, we went into a room that was set up somewhat as a slave ship. Another stunning round of emotions overwhelmed me. The tour leader explained what the journey was like for the slaves: the pain, the frustration, the humiliation, the torture, the death, the sickness, the inhumanity. I bawled the whole time.

We learned a bit more of the the slaves' first entry into the country when they were taken off the ships. Another room showed pictures of the lynched. I never cease to be amazed that many white people in the South would gather for picnics, and lynchings would be part of the festivities. It's even worse that they took pictures, and people are smiling and laughing, and children are present. I had seen these before, but the impact was somehow deeper this time. The guide stated that "picnic" comes from "pic a nig---". I'll have to look into that.

I was very grateful for the day--and it ended with doing some service projects for a local church and a school. They served us dinner and it was well received. Such amazing people about whom I could write another several paragraphs about. I'll take it easy on you, lol.

2011-03-28T23:22:00.003-05:00

For my Facebook friends, I posted my thoughts and experiences throughout the week. I will post them here as well. I apologize to the reader(s) for the length as it is all of the days together in one posting.

Having a good day in Atlanta. Toured the CNN center which was not really that remarkable, just a lot of advertising about how great the company is. A nap at Olympic Park was wonderful and getting to know everyone is really nice. Tomorrow, church service and museums.

Went to Ebeneezer Baptist 125 Anniversary service in Atlanta. Met John Lewis! (A Civil Rights activist.) Went to museums in Atlanta, and in Birmingham, Alabama. Very moving experiences, all. Tasty southern food to cap off the day. It's different here in the sense that you can still sense the segregation-not obvious but you can feel it. Still cannot believe I got to meet John Lewis. We did not know that he was going to be at the service, and so later, despite the fact that everyone was supposed to be on the bus, I sneaked up to John, and we spoke for a couple minutes. At some point, a new friend will let me have the photos from her camera and I'll put them up here. Woohoo! I wish we could have stayed longer to meet some of Dr. King's family-I believe his sister was there. :( We went to the eternal flame and Dr. and Mrs. King's tomb.

It was a long but great day yesterday. We were in Montgomery. A very complicated city to say the least. As for the Capitol building tour, we did not have the older ladies as expected, who would tell us that slavery only existed for 11 years--they sent as a tour guide of the capitol an African American woman who unfortunately either did not know too much, or, was not allowed to say much since there were plenty of people around listening. The murals and statutes confirm their wonderful and bountiful history and nothing negative :). The confederate flag is up in the old Senate chamber (to preserve the historical aspects of the room). It was beautiful. However, there are points of interest where great white men like Jefferson Davis and George Wallace stood to give speeches. There is not one reference to the Union (purposely omitted)--it's all about the Confederacy.

On Feb 19th, they had the 150 year Confederate Heritage Rally on the steps of the capitol recently, which included KKK marching everywhere. This is even more striking as the Dexter Ave. Baptist Church where MLK was a preacher for about 6 years, is 1/2 block from the capitol. I did not know it was that close. I'm glad we were not here for that.

The scrolling wall of names was interesting. At the Civil Rights Memorial, in a darkened room, you insert your name into a computer promising to practice tolerance and to do what you can to improve the world. As soon as you hit the enter-key, your name pops up on the projection screen in blue or green for the world to see. It may or may not be there by the end of the day depending on visitors but it's nice to see.

Went to several other places including the Confederate White House--the Davis family adopted a little black boy and "de-colored" him so that he could be considered a family member. On the plus side, they adopted him to protect him from being abused by his previous caregiver. Rosa Parks and the Greyhound Freedom Ride Station were very remarkable places to learn more information and get a strong feeling of what it must have been like in the 50's and 60's for blacks. I walk around feeling like I want to ask every person over 40 what life was like then. There is more underlying racism here than I thought. You do not walk into certain neighborhoods depending on your skin color. You do not walk into certain neighborhoods if you stick out as a Jew, Northerner, or some other foreigner. We were patronized at various points. There is security at the Civil Rights Memorial because they were bombed in 1983 by the KKK.

Just a quick mention about the day we went to the Ebenezer Baptist Church service. Outside, there was a statue of Kunta Kinte holding Kizzy to the sky, just like in Roots. Later, in the service they welcomed a baby into the fold, and repeated the same action.

Montgomery also covered the Greyhound Bus station where the Freedom Riders were beaten. There are beginning to make the building into a museum and had some nice plaques depicting the general events and small biographies of the Riders. We also passed by the central fountain which was right down the street from the Capitol Dome. This used to be the Slave Auction Block, and they erected a fountain over it. During our visit, the water was pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.

Future advice: Don't tour on Mondays. Many churches and some museums are closed.

Birmingham: We visited the outside of the church where the four girls were killed in a bombing, Kelly Ingram Park across the street, and then a museum that was put together very well. It depicted a bit of the life during mandatory segregation, as well as some of the most painful aspects of the movement. By the end, I was bawling. The Park itself is a site where a lot of pain occurred to citizens, such as assaults from fire hoses and police dogs. Statutes have been erected for visual depictions. Later, we went to a wonderful lecture by I believe a U of A professor about the beginnings of Birmingham in general. It was formed in 1871 and was quite similar to the boom towns of the West. This makes it a bit more unique as immigrants built it along with ex-slaves. It also developed around capitalism from the start, which was rare for the South. There is a lot more info than I will include here, but I'll keep it short.

Day 9

2011-03-28T13:50:00.002-05:00

Saturday morning we had the opportunity to visit Heifer International. We were able to explore the various exhibits they had and were also taken on a green building tour to learn about all the cool ways the Heifer building is being energy efficient and kind to the environment. After we finished exploring Heifer, we walked over to the Clinton Presidential Library. I was really disappointed that we didn't have much time here and my group really did not get to see very much of the museum. We were able to watch a short video on Bill Clinton, sit at an exact replica of the cabinet table (I sat in the EPA director's chair), and see a replica of the Oval Office. We loaded up the buses and headed to Memphis at 11:30am and enjoyed a boxed lunch on the way. Once in Memphis we toured the National Civil Rights Museum. I think this was a great way to end the trip because the museum was a recap of everything we had learned throughout the trip, all in one place. We were able to have headsets with audio that led us through the museum which was really nice. After going through the museum we spoke with Reverend Billy Kyles and he was really inspirational. We finished our 9 day trip with free time on Beale Street for dinner and we departed for Wisconsin at 8pm. We arrived in Eau Claire around 9:30am on Sunday exhausted but incredibly glad that we had the opportunity to partake in such an amazing experience!

MAR 25 2011

2011-03-25T23:18:00.001-05:00

After a half day bus trip, we arrived at little rock city. We paid a visit to the Little Rock High School Historic Site and learnt about the “Little Rock Nine” stories. In visitor center, I read about the history about how the white people boycott the nine black students to go to school. At the beginning, the Federal guard protected mob away from the black students. However, when the local police take turns, the police officers were fair of the mob. The black students had to go back home for their safety. Some of the high school’s board members even voted them to quit school. Fortunately, thanks to the effort, the nine black students got their rights back and could go to school again.

The white people were not willing to integrate the black people. They boycotted the black students. Once the black students went into the classroom, the white students would leave the classroom and told the mob outside the high school building that the blacks were inside. One of the Little Rock Nine was hit down by a brick by a white student although he was very tall. And the local police officers are afraid of the mob. The effort of the police is not enough to stop the white students hurting the black students, so the conflict between white students and black students were very serious. This makes me very sad. This was a conflict inside the people of one country.

In the evening, we had our supper at University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service. We communicated with the students there. I was very proud of them that they help the society around the world, help the people around the world, and spread the sense of harmony to the world. And many of us showed interest in applying the program provided by this school. I believe this will help the world more peaceful and beautiful in the future.

Day 7 and 8

2011-03-25T22:09:00.002-05:00

Thursday we started our day off with a bus tour of New Orleans. We were shown many historical sites throughout the city. Our tour guide pointed out the homes of famous people, beautiful architecture, the French Quarter, the 9th Ward (including the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina), and various other points of interest. Our bus was stuck behind a train for a good long while which put somewhat of a damper on the bus tour but overall it was an interesting experience. After the bus tour we headed out of the city for a swamp tour. We took high speed airboats out into swampland and were able to see many alligators. We all also had the opportunity to hold a baby alligator!

On Friday we rolled out of New Orleans at 5:15am to get a (very) early start for our bus ride to Little Rock, Arkansas. Once we arrived we explored the Little Rock Central High Visitors Center, listened to a talk by Minnijean Brown Tricky, and took pictures of the outside of Central High. Afterwards we stopped by the Arkansas State Capitol building and looked at the Little Rock Nine sculptures. The last item on our agenda was to visit the Clinton School of Public Service. We listened to a panel of current students and ate dinner at the school afterwards.

New Orleans: Epic.

2011-03-25T21:37:00.002-05:00

The tour of New Orleans was really fascinating. The new houses built by Jolie and Pitt were neat, glad to see solar power, and interesting architecture. The musicians’ village was also beautiful, I loved the colors. I was glad to hear that the houses have been given free to the poorest families, or provided with no-interest mortgages and so forth, so that they can be lived in by the same people who used to live in the lower ninth. I know that it’s been a lot harder for poor black families to return to New Orleans, and Katrina and the way the recovery was handled is causing a whitening of the city. I felt uncomfortable in the garden district, the disparity between the wealth of that area and the poverty of the lower ninth was incredibly stark.
That’s a real shame, because New Orleans is the only place with visited so far that really feels like the contributions of African-Americans are honored as central to the history of the city. I’m definitely going to find out more about Congo Square, the fact that the enslaved African people were able to hold on to aspects of their culture was obviously incredibly important in making New Orleans the culturally vibrant place it is today.
A couple of other things I learned on the tour. Both the tour guide and the guide at the enslavement museum mentioned the expertise that enslaved African people had brought to America, in building and agriculture for example. That’s something I hadn’t thought about before: I’d just taken for granted the image of enslaved African people as brute labor – which is of course the image imposed on them by their kidnappers.
It was great to see the site of Homer Plessy’s act of civil disobedience. The Harlan dissent in Plessy v Ferguson is well worth reading. He argues not from the 14th (the Equal Protection Clause, on which Brown v Board is based), but from the 13th (the Amendment ending slavery). He argues that segregation is, in effect, preserving slavery, and that the 13th Amendment was intended not just to end the practice of slavery narrowly defined as the direct ownership of human beings, but to create a state of freedom for all Americans, a freedom upon which segregation infringes. It’s a beautiful argument, and also applicable to exploitative economic arrangements like sharecropping which effectively preserved the power relationships of slavery under another guise.
The other thing Harlan argues is that the constitution should be color blind. This is a really difficult question. Certainly, in a perfect society we would want the laws to be color-blind. But we do not live in a perfect society. And color-blindness is often used as a tool to maintain the white supremacist system. This portion of the Harlan dissent and selected lines from MLK’s “dream” speech are often quoted by the right wing when attacking programs which attempt to redress the damage of racism. I think one obvious lesson from this trip is that we can’t ignore racism, we can’t just make-believe we’re color blind and expect it to go away. By “we” here, I mean white people, because people of color are no afforded the privilege to engage in the color-blind fantasy.
On the subject of blindness, I sincerely hope that the people didn’t completely remove critical lens while having fun in New Orleans. In particular, Bourbon street is steeped in male privilege. I know it’s easy to get caught up in the bacchanalia there. But we should maintain and critical thought about the messages that are being sent, specifically about the purpose of women’s bodies in providing entertainment, and the economic relationships at play.
I want to end on a high-note. We had an epic two nights. The first night in New Orleans, we walked along the riverfront, headed up to Jackson Square where we saw a brass band playing cutting-edge new style music on the street. We then walked down Royal dropping into the artists collective where there was some beautiful art. I love the artists collective model, and was fascinated to hear about the route an artist could take “off the square” to the collective to their own gallery on Royal. We then ate at “Eat” which serves new dishes in the Cajun style. From there we headed to the Palm Court Café for a couple of hours of live traditional New Orleans jazz, and we found out that the night before a segment of Treme, the David Simon show about New Orleans, was filmed there. If anyone hasn’t seen the first season of that show, I highly recommend it, it’s superb. We ended the night at the Pirate Alley Café and Café Du Monde.
The second night I finally made it to Vaughns, a bar in the lower ninth that became famous after Katrina for handing out food to survivors. We saw the BBQ Swingers, and despite the absence of trumpeter Kermit Ruffins, they were amazing. They played a really thrilling mix of traditional jazz, jazz funk, modern jazz with a touch of hip hop. The joint was, as they say, jumping. They give out free red beans and rice, and we bought a pound of crawfish in a bag from a grocery store on the corner as well as Hubiqs pies. The band played some of my favorite tunes, including Lady Be Good, Bye Bye Blackbird, Chameleon, Down in the Treme, St James’ Infirmary, You Got Me, Pretty Young Thing, Crazy, Fuck You, Caravan, Blue Trane, just to give an idea of the range. We danced for hours – I love dancing. So that was a truly epic experience.

Mar 24 2011

2011-03-25T00:47:00.000-05:00

Today morning, we had a bus trip in New Orleans. We saw sites of importance to the Civil Right Movement. The highlights included Jackson Square, the Cathedral, and the famous French Quarter balconies. In the Jackson Square, there is a statute that expresses three important people that are important to the Civil Right War. However, among them, there was no black person. That was unfair to the blacks. Out tour guide told us that New Orleans is the second largest immigrant city in US. This city has a characteristic of inconclusiveness. And it is the first city that has black people as immigrants instead of slaves. The black people even have their park to go during holidays, in which they can speak African language and dance African dances. However, after Civil Right War, this area is segregated but unfair. The blacks have their own fountains but different and worse than the fountains for the whites. The white people have several Olympic size swimming pools but the black people have not one.

Also, we saw the area most devastatingly affected by Hurricane Katrina, the levee structures, and learn how New Orleans residents have made an impact after the storm to bring the city back. We saw some sola power set on the roof of the new-built house that sponsored by Angelina Julie and other kind people. And some musicians sponsored a valley using the money earn by their concerts. In the musician valley, the houses are paint in different colors and make visitors feel happy. We could hardly feel the sadness in the area. In addition, we saw the vibrant Creole neighborhoods and shotgun houses throughout the city and visited the Garden District to get a sense of the luxury and extravagance of old New Orleans.

In the afternoon, we had a swamp tour with airboat adventures. Expert guides paused frequently to point out many natural wonders along the way. And we got a chance to hold a baby alligator. It was a great experience!

In evening, we had dinner on own. I try the Gumbo Soup and BBQ oyster. How delicious they were! After supper, we hurried to the Preservation Hall and enjoyed the best Jazz. The Preservation Hall is the birthplace of jazz. It sits at the heart of the French Quarter, and the musicians who make up the band learned from legends that played with the forefathers of New Orleans jazz: Buddy Bolden, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong and others. The music was fantastic and we really enjoyed it. But you have to get in line one hour early before the show begin to get in.

Today was really great and unforgetable!

Day 5 and 6

2011-03-24T12:30:00.003-05:00

Tuesday was an amazing day. Definetely the best day of the trip so far. We left Montgomery at 7am and headed to Selma, Alabama. Once there we were given a bus tour led by Ms. Joanne Bland. She was so knowledgeable, entertaining, and interesting. We visited the Voting Rights Museum and the Ancient African Enslavement and Civil War Museum. The latter musuem was probably one of the most moving experiences of my life. The woman leading the tour was incredibly smart and knew how to tell the story of African Americans so that we could better understand what happened in the past and why things are the way they are currently. We ate lunch at Esse's Place and it was soooo delicious! Fried chicken, green beans, mac and cheese, and sweet tea. Doesn't get much better than that. Ms. Joanne also took us across the bridge in Selma so that we could envision exactly what the marchers on Bloody Sunday were walking towards. After picking up trash in a local park commerating those who participated in the Civil Rights Movement we went to a local school to do some more community service. We cleaned bathrooms, painted, organized, and did various other jobs that needed to be done. We were also given another amazing meal after completing our work. It was an all around great day.

Wednesday was bus day. We got on the bus at 7am and drove 5 hours to Gulfport, Mississippi. We stopped to get lunch and spend some time on the beach. Another 2 hours down the road we arrived in New Orleans! Once settled into the hotel everyone was free to do whatever they wanted. I choose to go to the Gumbo Shop for dinner (mmmm crabcakes) and explore Bourbon Street. It was fun to see the atmosphere that is characteristically New Orleans.

Types of accuracy and falsehoods

2011-03-24T01:21:00.003-05:00

The experience at the enslavement museum was amazing in many ways. The guide was obviously incredibly dynamic, and confronting my own feelings of inferiority while being yelled at, told to lower my eyes, even in that incredibly limited and safe setting was a very powerful way to empathize with the enslaved people. Voluntarily imposed discomfort which you know to be temporary, and which you know you could stop if you wanted, comes nowhere close to capturing the real feeling of being involuntarily forced into the same situation. I also thought the museum had great artifacts; one thing that especially stuck with me was the looks on the faces of the white people watching the man get burned alive.

My emotions were mixed. A fair number of the things she said I know to be untrue. For example, the story of Willie Lynch is a myth. And many of the claims she made about the Egyptians are dubious. These types of claims are something I’ve had to confront in the past listening to politically conscious hop hop. I understand why these claims exist, they fit with the narrative and the people who disapprove them are college professors, figures of authority, and historically that’s been the source of no shortage of racist retellings of history. One of the effects of systematic, government endorsed racism in America is creating a lack of faith in institutions among oppressed people.

I was struck by the contrast between the tour of the slavery museum and the tour of the Alabama capital. In the capital, although nothing was said that was precisely false, the overall message was incredibly deceptive, with no mention of slavery or segregation. By contrast, the overall message of the enslavement museum was right on, although some of the details were false. For example, the psychological tactics she described were used against slaves, even if they weren’t all described in a book at the time. Lynching was certainly a widespread and horrible fact of life, even if it wasn’t named after Willie Lynch, and although the Egyptians weren’t the first to invent quite everything, it is true that Africa had a rich and innovative culture long before the arrival of Europeans.

So in one respect, the details don’t really matter. But I do worry about the effect this might have on the credibility of the core arguments. I worry it provides ammunition to the opponents of progress. I’m also trying to take an honest look at the way I, as a white person, consider myself an authority over the museum curator, a black person.

Monday, March 21

2011-03-23T13:52:00.002-05:00

Monday, March 21

Today we drove to Montgomery, Alabama. We went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center and tribute first. It really is a beautiful memorial. Not only was it physically beautiful, but it was so moving. Seeing the faces of all those who have been oppressed was just an amazing experience to me.

I particularly enjoyed our tour guide (whose name I cannot recall). She was very informative and thorough about the history of the civil rights movement. She was very patient and answered any questions that or my fellow classmates or I had. I applaud her for all the work that she and the Southern Poverty Center are doing.

Next, we toured the Alabama state capitol. I found it kind of peculiar that the building was very empty. I would have expected there to be lots of tourists, but there were not. The capital itself was a beautiful building, but that came at a price. The capital, according to our tour guide was built by a freed slave. However, I am sure the slave did not enjoy building a capital in a state where they still wanted slavery even after Federal law declared it unconstitutional.

The capital more or less omitted the history of slavery. It is not a pretty part of history, but it was such a central part of the first centuries of American History, as well as other histories across the world. Slaves built the homes in Montgomery. Slaves built everything that is considered historic. They deserve some recognition.

One thing that bothered me was in the gift shop at the capital there was a section of Confederate gifts. They were celebrating the hatred that was associated with the Confederate. There were some civil rights based gifts but there just should not be Confederate gifts in the STATE CAPITAL.

We went to a Confederate White House. Again, it was a beautiful home but the history behind it was neglected. I wish they would have given some Confederate history or something. But again, slavery is ignored.

We then went on walking tour of Montgomery. We walked to a fountain that used to be a slave auction location. One of our student coordinators pointed out that she was angry that this was place was being celebrated and decorated given its history. I agree that she should be mad. Humans were sold there like they were animals.

When I heard people say they want to go back to history and live in antebellum times, I wonder why. First of all, black Americans were treated worse than farm animals. How could you want to live in a time where humanity was completely ignored? Also, what about women’s rights? Women regardless of their race had no rights. They were treated considerably better than blacks but they could not vote. They could not have opinions. They could not work. Why would you not want the freedom that we now have and will continue to gain more? I just do not understand it.

We then went to the Rosa Parks Museum. I loved our tour guide, she had a great personality. However, I did not love the museum. I felt like it was geared towards small children. And I think that is great for small children but not for college students. But I did enjoy some of the artifacts from the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Montgomery was a beautiful city. But it was a city with a dark past; a past that is now glamourized. I think Alabama still has miles to go in order to start the healing process of slavery and civil rights.

An Incredible Day in Selma, Alabama

2011-03-22T23:25:00.006-05:00

Slavery in Selma

2011-03-22T21:50:00.001-05:00

Today we arrived in Selma. Firstly, we visit Selma with Joanne Bland.

After visiting Baptist Church and Tabernacle Baptist Church, we went to Voting Right Museum, and Slavery and Civil War Museum. In the Slavery and Civil War Museum, we had a chance to experience what the slaves suffered in the old time. The big and strong men are treated more badly than the others are because the white want the black race to disappear or prevent the treatment from the black race. The slaves were crowed in the ships, which were heading to North America from Africa, like sardines in a can. Every day, what they had for food was just a handful of bread. And they could not go outside of the bottom of the ship. The diseases were easily spread around. Many of them were sick to dead. Also, many others were desperate and jumped into the sea, where was full of sharks. After they successfully arrived in America, they were treated even worse. The white people hanged them arbitrarily and the black people could not fight back. And the tour guide told us that they didn’t have their spirit correctly expressed.

In my opinion, I connect the hard time the African-American suffered with the first group of Chinese people to go to San Francisco did. We can see a lot of China Towns in main cities in America. And Chinese people earn their dignity and respect. To the best of my knowledge, the Chinese people can achieve this successfulness because of their great effort to develop their economy system. Only when one people have strong economic support, can this people earn their dignity and respect from the other people. The African-Americans are still under developed in nowadays, in this poor economic circumstance, they can hardly earn their respect from the white, regardless that they think they should do.

I cannot deny that the hard time the African-Americans suffered worth our sympathy. The white people really did something bad to them and the history should not be ignored. We should face the history bravely and correctly and pass them down to the next generation; however, we should try to find the reason not only on the enemy, but also on the black people themselves. Why they chose to stay in America instead going back to Africa while they complaining about the circumstance in America. Why they care the policy more than the development of their economy? I believe that these “whys” can help they improve their social circumstance.

MAR 21 2011

2011-03-21T22:35:00.000-05:00

Today we learned a lot about the people and officers involved in the civil right movements.

What influenced me most was the picture and the explanation exhibited in the Civil Right Memorial Center. There are four black people’s photos hanging on the wall and some words describe how they die and why they die. It sounds ridiculous. The killer who just wanted to kill somebody that was not the same race as him shot one of them. Another man who was an US citizen was shot four days after he bought a US flag near his own house with a towel on his head. The killer confessed that he just shot a guy looks like a terrorist. How can they identify a person just by what they thought the person might be and then killed them if they looks like being dangerous? Did they think the life of the black people is worthless and their own lives are more precious? If they didn’t treat life fairly, how can they treat the color skin people fairly in terms of their civil rights?

In the afternoon, we visited Rosa Parks Museum. I knew something about Rosa Parks before this trip; however, I learned more and get clearer to this great beautiful black woman. And I was moved by her courage. Facing the white police officers and the other white passengers, Rosa Parks showed great courage. The famous sentence” You might do that (arrest me).” makes me so proud of her. If I were in that moment and in that place, I will not have that courage and the calmness.

I can’t describe my feeling with my poor vocabulary. Today is really great and I really feel appreciated to those who sacrificed for the civil right movements.

Sunday, March 20

2011-03-21T22:15:00.001-05:00

Journal March 20

We went to a lot of places today. We spent the morning in Atlanta, Georgia. First, we went to Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ebenezer Baptist Church is where Martin Luther King Jr. preached for several years with his father. It was also his childhood church. He lived about 2 blocks from the church. We were supposed to go to church at the usual time of 8 in the morning, but there was a marathon preventing us from going and it was also the 125^th anniversary celebration of Ebenezer Baptist Church. So services were going to start at 11 AM. This was an issue since we had a very tight schedule for the day. So we flipped things around and went to the Visitor’s Center and MLK’s tomb first instead of after church.

I really liked MLK’s tomb and the eternal flame. It reminded me of John F. Kennedy’s eternal flame in Arlington Cemetery. MLK’s tomb was in the middle of a reflecting pool and I thought it looked very pretty. Next to the tomb and reflecting pool was Freedom Hall. There was not a lot that was incredibly interesting in my opinion at Freedom Hall. I did like looking at some memorabilia belonging to MLK. They had his suit that he was stabbed in on display; as well as some of his other clothing that he wore on important occasions.

Next, I went to the Ebenezer church’s visitor’s center. That was probably my favorite place in Atlanta. They had a display of Jim Crow laws that you could read. Most people hear about things like lunch counters or buses being segregated, but there was so much more that was segregated. In Georgia, for example, it was illegal to bury a white person next to a black person. And if you did you could get a $500 fine. Even in death, the races could not be integrated. Another Jim Crow law that I found fascinating was the promotion of equality law. It was illegal to promote equality between the races. So not only did you have to follow these ludicrous laws, but if you tried to protest against them, it was illegal.

Next, I went to the church service at Ebenezer. I haven’t been to a church service in about four years or so and I have never been to a Baptist service before. It was a very different experience than what I had been exposed to before. There was dancing and choirs. I really enjoyed the dancing and all of the spectacular vocals.

Another wonderful surprise was that Congressman John Lewis was there. He took part in Bloody Sunday and was on many of the freedom busses. He gave a speech about civil rights and he heard there was a group from Wisconsin attending the service. He mentioned that on one of the rides he sat next to a college student from Beloit College. I thought that was so cool since that is close to my hometown.

We then boarded the bus and went to Birmingham, Alabama immediately after church. This meant we had to skip lunch (which made all of us very cranky) since we were behind schedule due to the mix up with church times.

In Birmingham we went to the Civil Rights Institute. My favorite part as odd as it may sound was the Ku Klax Klan exhibit. I have always seen pictures or television footage, but never any actual artifacts from the KKK. They had one of their traditional white suits. Just seeing it was disturbing and I could sense hatred. Unfortunately, we could not take pictures in the Civil Rights Institute. I also enjoyed seeing some of the segregation related artifacts, including lunch counters and water fountains.

Next, we went to Kelly Ingram Park where there many statues dedicated to some of the events that happened at that park during the Civil Rights movement. The statues were beautifully made, but creepy. There was a statue of a police officer with a dog that was attacking a little boy. You know that these aren’t real, but this happened to some little boy. What did this boy do to deserve to be attacked by a dog? Absolutely nothing if you ask me. He was fighting for his human rights.

They had another statue with three dogs attacking you as you walked through it. I could only imagine what it must have been like for those who were brutally attacked by the police. They also had water hoses that were sprayed on protestors. They had a statue of two small children on the ground being sprayed by hoses. This was heartbreaking to look at. However, I am glad that they have decided to display these events with statues so that future generations can get a taste of what black people went through to get their basic human rights in the South, as well as the rest of the states.

The last place we went to was 16^th Street Baptist Church. I wish we could have gone inside because it was such a crucial part of the Civil Rights movement. I still cannot fathom why somebody would want to bomb a church knowing there were children inside. Or just people inside, but it is particularly emotional because four young girls died. I watched a film on the bus about the bombing and most of their bodies were not presentable to have an open casket at their funerals. It was such a devastating and horrific act of violence.

While I knew a lot about most of this stuff, I still learned so much. It is one thing to read about it in a textbook, but to see it in person is a whole other thing. You can feel the emotions that must have been felt when these things were happening. I hope that people who see these artifacts and exhibits continue to pursue social justice and fight for equality for all human beings. I know I will continue to do so.

125th Anniversary Service Sunday at Ebenezer

2011-03-21T21:51:00.003-05:00

Day 3-Montgomery, AL

2011-03-21T21:32:00.002-05:00

Today we were extremely busy. The day was filled with a lot of information and a lot of interesting places! What I though was the most moving of the tours was the Civil Rights Memorial. So many lives have been lost in such tragic ways. It was a concept I really had to take in and absorb, empathize for the individuals who have passed.

Day 3 and 4

2011-03-21T21:08:00.002-05:00

On Sunday we were up before the sun to get to Ebenezer Baptist Church for the 8am service. The first "glitch" we encountered for the day was Sunday happened to be the Atlanta Marathon and there were thousands of people running the marathon blocking our path to the church. Us being cool UWEC students we took this in stride and just joined the marathon for about 8 seconds or however long it took us to get across the street without cutting off any runners. The second "glitch" was that it also happened to be Ebenezer's 125th anniversary this particular Sunday so the service wasn't until 11am. So we took advantage of our free time to visit a variety of MLK sites. I watched two videos at the Visitor Center talking about MLK Jr.'s life, visited MLK's tomb, The Eternal Flame, and Dr. King's Birth Home. It was really cool to walk around and think about the fact that MLK Jr. himself walked in the exact same area.

At 11am we were able to attend the church service in Ebenezer. It was a very special service (being the 125th Anniversary and all) and it was awesome! Jennifer Holliday sang, Jon Lewis spoke, and the sermon was very moving. It was really cool to experience such a different church atmosphere than what I am used to. We left for Birmingham around 1:30pm and went straight to Kelly Ingram Park. We then visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and got to learn about the Civil Rights Movement events that occurred in Birmingham. We then went to the University of Alabama-Birmingham and talked with Dr. Pamela King. She provided a lot of background and history of Birmingham which was really interesting and informative. We then went to Golden Corral and feasted on an amazing buffet. I tried fried okra for the first time and was quite impressed.

Monday morning we left Birmingham around 8:15am for Montgomery. Once there we took a tour of the State Capitol building and the Confederate White House. After lunch we went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center and given the opportunity to sign the Wall of Tolerance, making a pledge to stand up against injustice and inequality. We then travelled to the Rosa Parks Museum and Library and were able to see a really cool video/hologram enactment of what exactly happened to Rosa Parks on the bus. Next the student coordinators took us on a walking tour of Montgomery and we were able to see the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and other landmark areas in downtown. It was a beautiful day and felt great to be outside!

Almost saved?

2011-03-21T00:20:00.003-05:00

Sitting in church, I realized that I had come to see the style of the service – the singing, the “amens”, the famous lyrical tone of the preachers, and so forth. I had given little thought to the substance, however. Once Rev. Dr. Warnock reminded us that something might connect with us, I started really listening to what the preacher had to say rather than just focusing on the performance of it all.

There was a lot about the message I liked. I like the idea in the verse that even though those in authority had prohibited them from speaking the truth they were defiant and spread their truth – a crucial message that I most associate with Audre Lorde. I liked the way he took the miracles and healing of the gospel and related them to the present day miracles of building schools and winning the vote. I liked the idea of praying for courage from God to perform human actions. There’s an Ani DiFranco line: “God’s work isn’t done by God, it’s done by people” of which I was reminded. I have no patience for prayer in place of action, but I think prayer in order to provide courage (and judgment) for action is a great thing.

The message I found disturbing, however, is the idea that church was the most important element in life. That if you could do nothing else, you should pray. That people who didn’t attend church had no excuse. And that attendance (and giving money) to that particular church was important. I believe the church does great work. But there’s a dangerous sectionalism there. And the power churches have to raise wealth has always had the danger of being corrupting. I’m not making any accusations here, I don’t know anything about what the church does with its money. But the fact that they were asking for money without say what it was for made me very uncomfortable. I still chipped in a buck.

I was uncomfortable too about the words spoken about Japan. I think it is actually quite horrible to advise people who have been victims of such a terrible disaster to take comfort in God, to find courage in prayer. For a start, this is no help to the dead. Further, there’s a certain type of imperialism there. Japan does not have a large Christian population. I know this is not what the preacher meant to say, but his message was not so far from the Christian missionaries who did so much harm, cultural and otherwise. To put it another way, imagine a Christian in the US who had lost a loved one in a natural disaster being told by a Japanese preacher that they should visit a Shinto shrine and leave an offering for the earth. I think the Christian would find that pretty offensive.

Of course, on my mind was the good the Church has done in terms of supporting civil rights and organizing people around social justice balanced with the harm they have done maintaining patriarchy and promoting discrimination against homosexuals.

All this is prelude to a more important personal question I was forced to ask about the role God plays in my life. I am not a Christian. But I translated the core message of the preacher that courage to perform healing (understood in the social justice sense) comes from God (the force for truth and justice which is greater than ourselves). I spoke in class about my shortcomings in terms of the incredibly limited amount of my time and energy I devote to justice. Today, we saw the MLK Jr. quote “life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?” My honest answer to that question is “not nearly enough.” Not to assume too much, but frankly that’s probably the honest answer of everyone on this trip.

Rev. Dr. Warnock asked us to surrender ourselves to Christ. I considered that question very seriously. I said after the service to some people that "I was almost saved but not quite." I was being funny, but I was also telling the truth. I don’t take it to be a literal call to Christianity, but rather to ask whether I have truly set aside my ego, my selfishness, my privilege, in service of truth and justice. I am a long way from doing that, or even from wanting to do it. There’s an argument, I think, that letting go of yourself in that way can be harmful, Elaine Brown (and many others) talk about the incredible toll that absolute dedication to social justice can take on a person, ultimately making them less effective. And then there’s the risk of fanaticism, of doing terrible harm in the over-zealous struggle to do good, of which history provides us with no shortage of examples. But these are just excuses. I’m struggling with my own level of dedication to justice and I heard a call today to surrender something of the worst part of myself to greater service. I honestly wonder if I will be able to heed that call.

Also, we got a shout out from John Lewis.

MLK

2011-03-21T00:08:00.000-05:00

Today is a special day. When we arrived at Ebenezer Baptist Church, we were told that the serve would open at 11 a.m. Therefore, we first visited Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Tomb and Dr. King’s birth home.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born January 15, 1929 at 501 Auburn Avenue, the home of his maternal grandparents. He lived in there until he became 12 years old. The house was protected very well. When I went inside, I felt it was very cozy. The bedrooms for the kids are very cute and beautiful. And the kitchen was reserved as someone was going to prepare a supper there.

At around 11 a.m. we went to Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was the 125 years ceremony. And the church serve was great. Everyone was enthusiastic and friendly. This is my first church serve. I hope I can have more chance in the future.

We skipped our lunch and headed to Birmingham Civil Right Institute directly. It surprised me that it had Tiananmen Square Event exhibited there. The videos are blocked in China. I appreciate the journalist who kept those videos and reserved them. Those videos recorded what really happened in China during April 1989 to June 1989. And I hope China, both the government and the people can regard this event correctly soon. And I wish the government of China can tell us the truth about what was really happening during that period. On the other hand, I am grad that China can help the world partly in the movement on the civil right.

civil rights pilgrimage - day 1

2011-03-19T22:27:00.000-05:00

I haven’t spent that much time in the south yet, and haven’t seen much- it being my first day. I suppose the most pertinent thing that I can reflect is my own prejudice. I was going in to this thing trying not to have any expectations, but it was hard not to be on the lookout for twangy voices and a mass of confederate flags. What really surprised me was how close the south (so far) is to home. It could be because I haven’t interacted with much of anyone local thus far, but if someone had told me that I was somewhere on the east coast as opposed to the south I would have believed them.

I mean, I have seen gas stops with NASCAR jackets in them, along with a few confederate flags. I’m just wondering where the south that “I know” is. Is it a question of having not travelled far enough yet or that it doesn’t exist? Maybe the racism I’ve been expecting is dispersed randomly just like it would be anywhere else. Maybe it’s because we’ve only been in cities so far.

At any rate, I’m able to keep a much more open mind now. It’s beautiful down here and I’ve been wrong this far, right?

Day 1 and 2

2011-03-19T20:37:00.003-05:00

Hello Atlanta!

Yesterday we left UWEC around 4:30pm and got started right away with getting to know one another. We did a sort of "speed dating" activity to get to know other people on our bus. I really enjoyed this activity and it made the three hours to Madison go by really quickly. We stopped at East Towne Mall to eat at the food court for dinner. From there it was the beginning of a very long night on the bus. We stopped in Leroy, Illinois for a bathroom break/get ready for bed stop. This pit stop took awhile due to the large number of females on the two busses and the presence of only a single small bathroom area. We eventually got going again and everyone did their best to try and sleep. We stopped again around 4:30am in Paducah, Kentucky to gas up and change bus drivers. At around 8:30am we stopped in Tennessee for breakfast and then continued into Atlanta.

Our first activity in Atlanta was the CNN Studio Tour and it was awesome! I love watching the news (and especially CNN) and being able to see a behind-the-scenes look at what goes on was really cool. The media has such a huge impact on our lives and it was nice to understand how the information the media provides us with is found. After CNN, I took the opportunity to go to the World of Coca-Cola and try the variety of different flavors of Coke from around the world. Personally, I thought the flavors from England and Italy tasted horrible but Spain was my favorite and tasted like raspberry ice tea. After our afternoon activities we checked into our hotel and were provided with a pizza dinner. Everyone is pretty tired and looking forward to sleeping in a bed tonight!

Welcome to Atlanta!

2011-03-19T20:23:00.001-05:00

Today we made it into Atlanta and enjoyed a tour of the CNN World Headquarters! We'll all sleep well in a bed tonight! :)

Movies about civil rights

2011-03-19T20:21:00.005-05:00

Encouraged to think critically about media, I want to talk about some of the similarities between three films we watched in the past day on the bus: Remember the Titans, The Blind Side and Ghosts of Mississippi. One thing that was striking to me about all three of them is the way their stories are centered around white people. This is less so in the case of Titans where Denzel Washington’s character is the lead, but the story was still framed by a white voice (the defensive coach’s daughter) often followed his story. The conclusion of the story – the moral – comes from a white perspective. Similarly, the way Ghosts centered the story around Alec Baldwin’s character really stood out to me – when it seems that Myrlie Evers is really the person at the center of the story. All three films are made by white directors. I think this raises some important questions. Who has the power to tell stories about civil rights? To whom are these stories told?

I think it’s important to consider what a movie teaches us, and how it entertains us. Certainly, all three movies give a historical perspective on events – Ghosts tells the most important story, historically, although the other stories are worthwhile too. But there’s more to these movies than just the story of the protagonists. They each contain a message about the nature of racism in America, and how it can be overcome. In all three cases, racism is manifested as negative thoughts and feelings by white people which can be overcome by those white people changing their mind. The character arcs at the center of all these movies are about essentially well meaning white people (the coach, the lawyer and the socialite) with some racist ideas who, through exposure to noble and essentially flawless black characters (the coach, the widow and the football player), learn how not to be racist. Because the white characters learn this lesson, and stand up for the main black character, racism is overcome and the good guys triumph against the evil white people who held onto their racism. The effect is cathartic, as the audience we share in their triumph and take the side of the good white people, hoping that we would do the same thing.

I don’t think catharsis is essentially a bad thing, but I do think it’s important that it doesn’t replace personal responsibility and action – something I think we should all keep in mind as we look back at history through this trip. I also think we need to ask what story isn’t being told. In the case of the Blind Side, to pick an easy example, the film never asks if the way that Sandra Bullock’s husband makes his money might be exploiting the African-American community and keeping them in poverty. Or if the all-white Christian private school is responsible for diverting resources away from the mostly-black public schools.

As I write this, I am thinking of Malcom X, the movie by black director Spike Lee about (also starring Denzel Washington). Notably, the story of Malcom X is never told from the point of view of a white person, most of the characters and all of the major characters are black. In addition, it presents a far more systematic picture of the nature of racism in America. Perhaps most importantly, it doesn’t end by tying up the story with all the problems of racism, as they impacted the main characters, conveniently fixed.

2011-03-19T19:46:00.002-05:00

Journal- March 19, 2011

The south is completely different than what I am used to. The food, people, and shopping is very different, yet similar to what I know.

The one thing I noticed that was different than most parts of Wisconsin is the diversity. Especially where I am from Wisconsin there are no African Americans. And at school, I’ve seen maybe six black people. And with ten thousand students, they are definitely a minority.

In Tennessee, there were some more black people than I am used to. But they were still not a majority. However, when we stopped in Atlanta, GA nearly every person I saw was black.

I went to the CNN center mostly with the people on my trip, so we weren’t that diverse. I found the CNN center to be okay. It was kind of neat watching the anchors do the broadcast live, but I find the tour overall to be a little dull.

After CNN, my friends and I went to the Atlanta Underground. I was not originally planning on going there, but I am really glad that I did. I saw so much of Southern culture that I probably would not have seen at the Aquarium or the Coca Cola museum. My friends and I (there were six of us) were probably the only white people in the underground mall. This was definitely a culture shock for me. I was not really bothered by it, but I did feel like I stuck out.

I pointed this out to one of my friends and she said, “Now you know what it’s like for black people in Wisconsin”. I had never truly thought about this before; what it would be like to be the only one of your skin color in a large group.

I have always wondered why black people would stay in the south when they were being terribly mistreated. Now I can kind of understand why they might want to stay. If you were the only one of your skin color in a large group, you might feel more comfortable being with people who are like you. I hope that as I grow older, there will be more diversity in every area of the US. Is this some kind of accident or are people consciously thinking that they want to live where people of their own skin color are living? But if we all live together, we can learn from each other and accept each other’s differences.

Day 1- Atlanta, GA

2011-03-19T19:34:00.003-05:00

Spending the night on the bus was just as expected: awful and uncomfortable! However, it was definitely worth it once we arrived to Atlanta! The CNN tour was very interesting. To see behind the scenes of what goes on in the informative stage of news broadcasting was really a once in a life time opportunity. Especially with the Lybia news that was going on today, the tour offered an extremely interesting atmosphere.

Almost time

2011-03-18T15:36:00.003-05:00

About to leave for the spring Civil Rights Pilgrimmage and I'm really looking forward to it. Hopefully this trip will be an eye-opener for me about modern-day race relations. This is also the first time I've ever really done anything during spring break besides work so that's exciting in itself. We have a pretty massive group going; I know some of the others going and hopefully I will meet many new people. This blog should get more interesting as this trip goes on and the visits to sights begin, so with that time to meet up at the buses. This is gooing to be a blast of a trip!

And we are off

2011-03-18T13:25:00.002-05:00

In just a matter of hours we will be headed off on yet another Civil Rights Pilgrimage. This will be my 4th trip and I am excited to get going. First stop will be Atlanta where it will be roughly 81 degrees out which sounds wonderful. We have around 110 people coming this time so it will be quite the experience!

Getting ready to go!

2011-03-17T19:51:00.003-05:00

We are leaving Eau Claire at 4:30pm tomorrow for the seventh Civil Rights Pilgrimage, and my fourth experience on the Civil Rights Pilgrimage! I am so excited to meet everyone and have a fun bus ride, although I have learned from experience that it will be looooong.

I am so pumped that there were so many students interested in the trip this spring that we are taking two buses. I think everyone will really enjoy the experience that the coordinators have done their best to arrange for you this spring break!

Next stop: Atlanta, Georgia!

Aaron Zucker - Day 10: Memphis to home

2011-01-21T21:13:00.002-06:00

The first thing that we did in Memphis was visit the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum/Burkle Estate. It was very interesting to me how the Burkle house was so well preserved and had such a rich history. I found it kind of scary how small the basement of the house was and knowing how many people had been in there over its years of use. From there we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. I really liked that we finished up this trip at this museum. It showed pictures from the places that we had visited and learned about. It really made me reflect on all that we had done. From there I went across the street to the Conspiracy Museum. I found quite surprising learning about the back story of the man who shot Dr King. It really made me wonder how many more people like him are out there.

Aaron Zucker - Day 9: Little Rock to Memphis

2011-01-21T20:42:00.002-06:00

In the morning we visited Heifer International. It was such a cool building and the company undertook such a great mission. It makes me wonder why more other buildings don't invest a little more time in how to design a building so that it pays for itself over time. Or buildings could just put in parking lots like the one at Heifer to better the environment. After that we explored the Clinton Presidential Library. I guess i never realized how much humanitarian work Clinton had done. I wish i would have been more politically savvy when he was in office. From there we packed up and went to Memphis for the night.

Aaron Zucker - Day 8: To Little Rock

2011-01-21T19:51:00.002-06:00

We all piled into the bus at 5:15 in the morning, gross. We were on our way to Little Rock Ar-Kansas. Once we got there we visited Little Rock Central High School. It was really an impressive and daunting building. I can't imagine how the little rock 9 felt while they were integrating this huge building. we then went down to the capitol building and saw the statue to the 9. The little rock 9 really can inspire many people to do what they know is right. It makes me wonder what the world would be like today if the rest of the population had as much courage and determination to do good as these 9 kids had.

Aaron Zucker - Day 7: New Orleans

2011-01-21T19:20:00.002-06:00

Today we got up and hopped on some tour buses and explored the historic parts of New Orleans. Which in case your wondering is quite a large portion of the city. It was really interesting to learn about how different segregation in New Orleans was different from most other places. How black families could live in a duplex type building with white families. Or how after a slave purchased his/her own freedom he/she could go out in the world and make a decent living with their skill set. From their we went down into the 9th ward area. It was astounding to still see those painted X's on buildings from five and a half years ago, which shows just how slow the rescue effort was. From their we went to the New Orleans African American Museum and we learned a lot about how difficult being a slave was in New Orleans. The average life span once a person was sold into slavery was 7 years. After that we went to the bayou and took a fan boat tour. It was ridiculously cold out. I got to hold a sleeping alligator. Then we headed back to the french quarter for a night on the town.

Aaron Zucker - Day 6: Arrive in New Orleans

2011-01-21T19:13:00.002-06:00

Today we left Alabama behind and hit the rode for New Orleans. While on the bus we watched the movie Selma, Lord Selma which was all about Bloody Sunday. It really shed light onto the main characters of the story and why the march was necessary. One the way to New Orleans we stopped at a the Gulf of Mexico for a bit. I was not expecting the Ocean to be quite as cold as it was. Once everyone got the feeling back in their feet we hopped back on the bus and went to New Orleans. Once we got there we had some time to explore the city and then we made our way back to the hotel and got some sleep to prepare us for the next day.