Day one of the 2015 Civil Rights Trip

 

The first day of fourteenth Civil Rights Trip included plenty of travel, with airplanes and buses, in four states and across a time zone, to get from East Providence to Montgomery, Alabama.

 

 

On arriving in Atlanta, veteran chaperones were happy to see Herb Brown, Gordon’s regular bus driver, back in the driver’s seat.

 

 

The first stop was Morehouse College, a venerable historically black college for men (Spelman, for women, is next door).

 

 

Undergraduates toured the eighth graders across the campus, and shared their own stories of how they came to attend Morehouse.

 

 

  

 

It is a place that is keenly aware of its history, and of its place in contemporary African-American life.

 

 

  

 

Standing by the grave of a former school president, on the highest point in the city of Atlanta, the guide pointed out the windows of the rooms where Dr. King studied as an undergraduate, and spoke of the the “Morehouse mystique”.

 

 

Inside the College Archives, the hosts gave students more perspectives on Morehouse today.

 

 

  

 

An aspiring cardiologist talked about his work organizing Morehouse students in support of Ferguson protestors.

 

 

  

 

Morehouse’s homecoming queen, Spelman senior Brittany “Reeci” Botts, spoke about campus protestors’ strategic response to the Michael Brown grand jury decision (taking advantage of the proximity of CNN headquarters).

 

 

  

 

When someone mentioned that Ms. Botts was a spoken word artist, she allowed herself to be persuaded to perform a poem about her heritage that she had written when she was in eighth grade.

 

 

  

 

Thinking quickly, one of Gordon’s Student Leadership Council co-presidents returned the favor by performing his own reflection on his roots, written when he was in seventh grade.

 

 

  

 

On the bus ride from Atlanta to Montgomery, a chaperone pointed out that it was sixty years ago, to the day, when Claudette Colvin refused to give up her seat on the bus.

 

 

Tomorrow, the trip will reach Selma, where citizens are preparing for the fiftieth anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March later this week.

 

 

There’s history everywhere on this trip, and, after fourteen years, the Gordon trip itself is developing a history of its own.