I was standing on the concrete driveway, beneath the shade of the carport and I am searching for something. I was scanning my eyes across the cracks in the cement, looking for the stained pool of blood that was once there. I was at Medgar Evers’ house in Jackson, Miss.
I went on the SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage last spring break. This was the first place I would visit on the journey, and the beginning of exploring historical events with the opportunity to think about them in a way I did not know still existed. It was an incredible trek through the South as we visited eight cities over the course of that week.
We began in Jackson, at the Evers’ home. If you are reading this and you do not know the significance of that, well, there is reason number one to be apart of this experience.
The pilgrims learned a great deal about the rich history that has contoured the way we live and perceive people of different races today. But our group of about 40 pilgrims went far beyond learning about them.
It is a different world when one can step into a house, such as Dr. Martin Luther King’s, and have the chance to take all this knowledge about civil rights and “I have a dream” and really make it mean something.
Can you imagine leaving SMU to step on a bus and ride for hundreds of miles, often being chased down as people tried to shoot you, and waited patiently for you to stop for a bathroom break or flat tire, only to attack? That is what the Freedom Riders did – a group comprised mostly of college students, white and black. They were fighting for equality.
On our pilgrimage we visited the Harris home, which is down the street from the Kings’ house. When the Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery in 1961, they were being followed by the Ku Klux Klan. About 30 Freedom Riders hid in the Harris’ home. We sat and talked to Mrs. Harris’ daughter, Valda Harris-Montgomery, as she shared stories with us about when she was a little girl serving and making food as the riders were hiding in her home.
I share here only two of the many extraordinary places we visited and incredible people we sat and talked with. Many of the people we met were fighters in the struggle, having been sent to jail; some had even been beaten and shot.
We visited the 16th Street Baptist Church where four little girls were killed. The pilgrims learned so much more about Rosa Parks, Viola Liuzzo, Jimmie Lee Jackson and many of the other heroes in the struggle who we do not find in our textbooks.
When the Office of the Chaplain first had the vision of the pilgrimage, they committed to four journeys. Spring break 2008 will conclude that fourth journey.
You do not have to be a religious person, nor a history buff; you do not even need to possess a passion for human rights to participate in the pilgrimage. You can go into this journey sharing nothing with the other pilgrims, but I promise, you will not return home that way.
For information regarding the 2008 SMU Civil Rights Pilgrimage, please contact the Office of the Chaplain. You may participate in this experience by registering for the classes PLSC 4321: Basic Issues in American Democracy or HIST 3310: Problems in American History.
About the writer:
Christina Dohanich is a senior markets and culture major. She can be reached at [email protected].
