: E L G G U R T S THE continues
G N ustice j I r o f R h c E r B he ma M t , r E e t a l M s r yea RE 50
s
by tories
eir t M. W rober
Olivia Stier
Top: Civil rights protestors in the 1960s. Bottom: A Black Lives Matter rally in Kalamazoo in 2016.
T
he Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s engendered significant change in the United States. But now, more than a half-century later, our nation and our own community still grapple with issues of intolerance and inequity. To gain a better understanding of the nation’s journey, Encore correspondent Robert Weir embarked on a Living Legacy Pilgrimage in November, taking an eight-day bus tour to 13 locations in Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama where key events of the Civil Rights Movement occurred. “I was too young to be involved during the 1950s and 1960s. Yet, those events happened within my lifetime, and I knew so little about them,” he says of his motivation to join this pilgrimage. In celebration of Black History Month, Encore takes readers along on Weir’s journey and also explores the struggles fellow Kalamazooans experienced, with one eye open to the fact that the struggle for human rights continues today. 24 | Encore FEBRUARY 2017