Day four of the 2025 Civil Rights Trip

This just happened: a Gordon eighth grader advocating against bill SB61 in conversation with Georgia State Representative Gabriel Sanchez. 

The Georgia legislature has a tradition where visitors can summon a legislator out of chambers for a personal conference. 

This eighth grader knew that Representative Sanchez would soon be voting on bill SB61, which seeks to stiffen criminal penalties for certain juvenile offenses.

She’s been researching the school to prison pipeline for an op-ed she’s writing, and she wanted to share her views with Representative Sanchez.

How did we end up here?
 

The eighth grade is on the last day of their Civil Rights Trip.
 

Today’s itinerary originally had Gordon’s eighth grade meeting with the community organizers at the New Georgia Project.
 

The staff of the New Georgia Project is not at their Atlanta offices today, though, so Gordon went to meet them where they were: the Georgia State Capitol.
 

Today is crossover day in the Georgia legislature, the final day for state senators and representatives to pass legislation, send it to the other house, and have it passed - or rejected - during this year’s legislative session.
 

That makes today a marathon of debate, decision and voting, and Gordon was been invited to be a part of it.
 

Before leaving the hotel, students caught up on some bills being voted on today that connect to civil rights: the end of DEI programs, the ability to deny student grants and loans to college students arrested for protesting, bans on drag performances, and more.
 

They also talked about their own ability to serve as advocates in the weeks and months ahead, and heard about Gordon graduates who have gone on to create lasting change at their high schools.
 

Upon their arrival at the Capitol, they found a building packed with lawmakers, aides and lobbyists.
 

The Gordon group had barely gotten in the door before they met the Georgia Youth Justice Commission, a representative from the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, and two state reps.
 

Students chose between observing the legislators at work from the gallery, or heading to the floor in hopes of conferring directly with a legislator.
 

A team from the New Georgia Project coached eight volunteers on the basics of talking to politicians, briefed them on the process of “calling out” legislators, and suggested some good names to start with.
 

Students filled out forms that included their names, the names of the representative they wanted to speak to, the number of the bill they wanted to discuss, and an invitation to "meet at the ropes."
 

Eight Gordon students ended up huddling with Georgia representatives today, on topics ranging from juvenile law to the proposed ban of DEI in public schools, and the application of the death penalty to intellectually disabled defendants.
 

They followed the coaching and spoke from personal experience, and remembered to make a specific ask.
 

They got to see their government at work today.
 

They held their own in an intense, very adult environment.
 

And they saw that this system is filled with, and fueled by, many smart, friendly, approachable people.
 

It was a fitting end to a trip that consistently challenged students to identify the individual stories that make up the arc of history...
 

...and then sent them home to find their own individual places in that arc.

 

back to day three

dozens more photos from day four

more on the Civil Rights Trip