Beginning with an eye on Dr. Martin Luther King, students started their travels in Atlanta, Georgia. From the first evening onward, the inquiry was focused on Alabama. Based in Montgomery for the week, students traveled to Selma, Birmingham, and Tuskegee, and in each place met with people who had lived through and given their hopes and energy to the movement.  

The eighth graders met with Barbara, a foot soldier who spoke of the three attempts (the final being successful) to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge to Montgomery. The group also visited the childhood home of Valda Harris Montgomery, the daughter of Dr. Richard Harris, whose family provided sanctuary for the freedom riders assaulted in Montgomery. They stood in the rooms where John Lewis stayed over that week planning, along with her father and Dr. King, how best to move forward. In addition, students also met with the current minister, Thomas Wilder, of the Bethel Baptist church, where Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth instituted the Alabama Christian Movement after the city of Birmingham outlawed the NAACP.  

Added to these notables were former students of the Shiloh Rosenwald school outside of Tuskegee, and two current artists who are continuing to fight for civil rights by bringing together community (Kevin King) and drawing attention to the sacrifices and challenges faced by Black women historically (Michelle Browder). Each evening, students walked down the streets of Montgomery, past the stop where Rosa Parks boarded the bus and the Dexter Avenue Church where Dr. King served as minister. Students engaged in conversation, history, art, and ate and made delicious food. 

The trip was remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which being Bryan Stevenson's vision of drawing people to Montgomery to better understand and acknowledge the impact of enslavement and its relationship to modern-day mass incarceration. Students visited the Legacy Museum, the sculpture garden adjacent to the Alabama River, and finally the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, acknowledging the lives taken through lynching throughout the nation. They also met with a lawyer from the Equal Justice Initiative, who is actively working to bring equity and justice to incarcerated people. 

The trip answered many of the students’ questions and raised others relative to the continued need to fight for equity in the United States. It was a fantastic experience.

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