I could have been on a beach soaking up rays or at home on my couch watching the mindless reality television dribble that I love so much, but instead I took Dr. Simon’s Civil Rights course and spent my spring break learning about the civil rights struggle that is continuing today.
A synopsis of my travels goes as such: We traveled from Dallas on Friday afternoon to Little Rock, Ark., where we spent the night and Saturday morning. The next day we went on a seven hour bus drive to Selma, Ala. We were in Selma for two days, including the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday March.
The Bloody Sunday March was a black protest against white oppression, that ended with fire hoses, dogs and tear gas being set on the protestors. From Selma we traveled to Montgomery, Ala., home of the famed Dexter Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. preached. There we were able to see Dr. King’s home and meet many who knew him personally.
From Montgomery we drove to Birmingham, Ala. where the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church took place and four young girls lost their lives. Birmingham is also the home of the Children’s March, in which thousands of school kids boycotted school, marched to the church and were arrested. Dogs and hoses turned on them as well.
From there we traveled through Tuscaloosa and on to Oxford, Miss., the town where the first black was integrated into a traditionally all-white college.
Finally, from Oxford we went to Memphis, Tenn., home to Graceland, the famed Stax Soul Museum and the Lorrain Motel, where Dr. King was gunned down at only 39 years old.
I was continually in a state of shock and awe throughout the pilgrimage. I feel like I spent most of the trip in a daze. I had always thought that I was fairly worldly and educated for someone of my generation; I care about the world, people and the environment. I volunteer and support various causes, everything an upstanding citizen is supposed to do, right? This trip proved me incredibly wrong.
I live in very nice, secure bubble compared to so many people and my generation is sheltered in so many ways. We do not suffer and endure war daily, getting our rights from a dominant culture that continually wants to hurt us. Volunteering my Saturdays and working for causes is nice. Nice doesn’t fix the problems. Getting passionate, angry, learning how to change the system and then acting upon it does.
Going into the trip I was very unsure what to expect. I expected long days on the bus, a lot of museums and lectures and some very cramped nights in hotels. What I received was so much more. I, along with my fellow classmates, received a life education. My eyes were opened to the cruelty and injustices of race relations in today’s world. Not that I would have ever said we are at the point we ought to be in terms of civil rights, but I couldn’t fathom the depth of that injustice until walking along the streets of Selma, Ala., unable to keep my jaw from dropping at the almost palpable hurt that filled the air and surrounded my senses. These people, I thought to myself, are still fighting their civil rights battles.
Ray Jordan, our amazing tour guide from the Chaplain’s office, told us we would all have “our moment” during the trip: one that’s hard to describe, life changing, and crucial to this trip. There wasn’t a time or an experience that didn’t move me, but there was a moment – a light bulb moment – when the entire trip, my whole life and what needed to be done all came together.
Ms. Joanne, who gave us a behind the scenes tour of Selma, Ala., and also a participant in the Bloody Sunday March, had us hold ordinary pebbles from the road near her childhood home, and then began to describe how those rocks represented people, and where those people had been and what they had accomplished. These rocks represented where men and women stood as they began their pilgrimage through the streets of Selma, not knowing that a wall of white oppression and violence waited for them on the other side of that bridge. I realized I wanted to be a rock, I wanted to have a moment in history that was mine and defined me, where I stood up for something and I gave myself meaning.
In that moment I realized what I was meant to do. I was meant to educate. I know that I need to educate others to stop the oppressive American cycle of social injustice. Educational inequalities and poverty are two of the most radical issues facing society today. And this is my problem; It isn’t just poor people’s problem, or black people or white people, it is all people. These problems are humanity’s problem. So today and every day from here on out, I will use what I have learned and continue to learn in order to educate. This is how I will begin the process of reconciliation.
Reconciliation was the theme of our trip. How can we find it? Can it be found? Can anything ever be enough to make 400 years of hurt better? And my answer to that question is emphatically, no. The past has happened, battles were lost, wars were won; it is the past. But we can never forget it, which is what slowly but surely is happening to mine and future generations.
As the keepers of this history are growing old and dying out, it is up to us, to my generation, to continue to educate future generations. To never let people forget, to honor the memory of the foot-soldiers and unsung heroes by stopping racism in our hearts and from entering our hearts; ending it in our institutions, and to begin to work towards 100 percent social justice and equality for all, while continuing to celebrate and love diversity in all walks of life.
With all that went on during the trip and the constant company of so many people, some of the most memorable moments for me were the moments of solitude I had alone, with my own thoughts. In Birmingham, after learning more about the 16th Street bombing, I wandered around the park that used to be segregated and just watched all the colors of the rainbow interacting with each other. It was a bittersweet moment looking at the water cannons used to hurt young individuals while standing next to two of my black companions. We have come so far, yet until the underlying racism and prejudices can be washed away from the average American’s paradigm of thinking, we have not come far enough. Emotions that were so often experienced on the trip were often harder to process without a few moments of thought and reflection. I was glad so much time was scheduled into the trip for reflection; without it I think some of the impact would have been lost.
I was honored to be with such an incredible group of people. It is interesting to think about what would happen if one got to know all of their classmates as well as I did this group. There were so many stories shared and hugs given that I cannot imagine this trip having the impact on me that it did without the specific group of people I shared it with.
Of everything I learned on the trip, the most valuable feeling I received was passion; passion to educate and to end hurt, hunger and pain. America isn’t black and white, it’s shades of every color, it is gay, straight, male, and female and it is wonderful. I know I need to work to be the change I want to see in the world.
Mine was not the typical Spring Break trip, but I wanted to share these intimate details of something that any SMU student can be a part of. So when you are planning your next Spring Break trip, or when you are an alumni in the Dallas area next year, contact Dr. Simon. This is a trip that no one should pass up. These are the kinds of trips that make SMU such a special place to go to school. We have opportunities to go on trips with professors who put their heart and soul into a class, not just creating a lesson plan, but planning a trip that touches our lives and we will never be the same because of it.
