Day two of the 2024 Civil Rights Trip

Last night was magic, and magic is important.
 

Today was more about the long game, the equally important sustained work that goes into lasting social change.
 

The day began at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where lawyers, researchers and community organizers gather daily to combat institutional racism and hate groups across the country.
 

In a civil rights history full of dramatic moments, the SPLC’s works in the slow grind of evidence gathering, legislative negotiation and court rulings.
 

There are heroes in the SPLC’s version of this story.
 

But there are dozens of them. Hundreds. Thousands.
 

They stretch back to Dr. King and John Lewis.
 

But the SPLC is inviting in new heroes on a daily basis, allowing visitors to pledge their commitment to positive change and displaying their names instantly on the wall.
 

Outside the building, students saw the names of Civil Rights martyrs from years past.
 

As they lingered at the Civil Rights Memorial, they were aware that they, too, were joining a minor movement.
 

Since they were little, they’ve seen photos of Gordon eighth graders at this memorial.
 

After twenty-three years of this trip, there are over eight hundred Gordon graduates that have shared this experience.
 

For each one of them, the visit to the Southern Poverty Law Center has been explicitly tied into Gordon’s mission of graduating leaders who will help change the world.
 

Today, these students have joined their ranks.
 

It’s fair to ask: how much of this is actually sinking in?

 

Ducking into an SPLC classroom for a quick seminar, the eighth grade’s teachers probed to see how the first twenty-four hours of learning had gone.
 

Students were right there, ready to compare movements of the past with those of the present day.
 

Similarities? The use of media. Strength in numbers. The power of youth. The use of the courts. Opportunities for people with different skills and passions to contribute.

Differences? Social media. The ability to mobilize globally. The presence of women in positions of power.
 

Most importantly, they seem to understand that progress is cyclical.
 

Having grown up during a decade of brutal election cycles, and aware of current assaults on reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ visibility and voting rights, these students seem undaunted.
 

They know their history, they see there’s been progress, and they’ve been assured, through many lessons, that each one of them can find a role to play in the movements of the future.
 

Joanne Bland has been playing the long game in Selma since she was first arrested at age eight.
 

She was one of the youngest participants in the 1965 Voting Rights March; the Voting Rights Act passed shortly thereafter, and, in Ms. Bland’s words, “ever since then they’ve been trying to take it away.”
 

Last night, Ms. Browder encouraged students to find their own “charge” in life. Ms. Bland assigned them one today: to make sure everyone they know who is old enough to vote is registered, and that they all exercise that right every chance they get.
 

But Ms. Bland is not a one-issue activist.
 

Seeing Selma through her eyes, you hear story after story of community involvement: storefronts she helped reclaim, murderers she helped identify, racists she has trolled, condescending monuments she helped correct.
 

Her work continues, too: like Browder, she has helped acquire property for community use.
 

This was the first Gordon eighth grade to have the honor of playing foursquare in its playground.
 

Across town, she and her granddaughter are working on another public storefront.
 

In a new auditorium space - the fire marshal had just finished his inspection moments before - Ms. Bland told them her story of the 1965 Voting Rights March, and the Bloody Sunday police riot that preceded it.
 

Then she let them retrace the marchers’ steps across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
 

“Think of the people you love the most,” she had told them.
 

“Think of the kind of world you want for them.”
 

“When people say love is essential for change, this is what they mean.”
 

“Think of what you can do to make the world beautiful for the people you love. And who wouldn’t want a beautiful world for the people they love?”
 

“It’s a life’s work,” she said. “Guess who’s going to make that happen?” The eighth grade answered her in unison: “We are.”

Back to day one

Ahead to day three

Hundreds of photos from day two

More on the Gordon Civil Rights Trip