Skip To Main Content
The Gordon School

Eighth grade Civil Rights Trip

above: Gordon's Civil Rights Trip was the topic on RI PBS's Generation Rising in July 2024. Host Anaridis Rodriguez went in depth on the trip and the impact it has on young people who are learning to make change in the world.

Gordon’s Civil Rights Trip is the culmination of a social justice curriculum that begins in Gordon’s youngest grades, and it’s an experience that has shaped the lives of hundreds of Gordon graduates since 2002.

Over four days, they visit historic sites in Georgia and Alabama, and meet with people who are making change in the present day. On their return to Rhode Island, students start making positive change in their own communities, partnering with local agencies in a full time, four-week service learning project.

The itinerary has been different every year. It has always included the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery and an extended tour of Selma, and (every year but one) a visit to at least one historically Black college or university.

Gordon first met with representatives of Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery in 2016, and Gordon has toured the National Memorial for Peace and Justice every year since it opened in 2018.

above: Leah Harrison-Lurie '16 and Maddie Lee '16 returned to Gordon to talk with faculty about the profound impact the Civil Rights Trip has had on their high school experiences

The 2025 trip


The twenty-fourth Civil Rights Trip began at 4:00am on Monday, March 3rd. Students will travelled to Atlanta, Montgomery and Selma over the next four days.

Stops this year included an insiders' tour of the Georgia State Capital with community organizers from the New Georgia Project and an opportunity to talk with elected legislators on the busiest day of the Georgia legislative calendar.
 
This was our second year having dinner with artist and activist Michelle Browder, with conversation about her work elevating untold stories of Montgomery history. Browder was profiled in People Magazine in 2022 and the Washington Post in 2021.

Updates from the trip were be posted to Gordon's Facebook and Instagram over the course of each day, and a daily wrapup posted to Gordon's blog each night (and linked from this page).

Notes from the blog

2025: day one

Notes from the day, including:
• An afternoon in Montgomery with Wanda Battle
• Mothers of Gynecology Park
• An evening in Michelle Browder's yard

2025: day two

Notes from the day, including:
• A morning at the Southern Poverty Law Center
• An afternoon in Selma with Barbara Barge

2025: day three

Notes from the day, including:
• Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
• The Legacy Museum
• National Memorial for Peace and Justice

2025: day four

Notes from the day, including:
• a day meeting with Georgia legislators at the Capitol

2024: day one

Notes on day one

Including:
• Morehouse College
• Mothers of Gynecology Park
• An evening in Michelle Browder's yard

2024: day two

Notes on day two

Including:
• Southern Poverty Law Center
• Selma with Joanne Bland

2024: day three

Notes on day three

Including:
• Breakfast with Lynda Lowery
• Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
• Legacy Museum
• Dexter Avenue King Memorial
• National Memorial for Peace and Justice

2024: day four

Notes on day four

Including:
• A morning meeting with the New Georgia Project

2023 notes from the blog

Stories from Gordon’s Civil Rights Trip