Civil rights tour inspires students

Students heard firsthand accounts of struggle and sacrifice while taking part in a Civil Rights Heritage Tour March 2-3.

During the trip, the LC group visited Alabama sites dedicated to individuals pivotal to the civil rights movement, including the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery and the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

“The tour allowed our students to be able to learn not just from textbooks, but also through seeing the places and hearing the stories,” said Chaplain the Rev. Ashley Jenkins ’08. “What made this trip an amazing experience was that people who fought for civil rights and voting rights helped lead the trip. Our students were able to meet some of the history makers of the movement.”

Seven students participated in the two-day experience through a grant from the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church.

“Being able to engage and speak with people who actively participated in the events we read about in our history books was a humbling experience,” said freshman Kenneth Howard.

On the last day of the tour, the students walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday, a tragic event in Selma that killed and injured peaceful protestors marching to Montgomery in 1965.

While at the bridge, students heard Vice President Kamala Harris give remarks commemorating the 59th anniversary of the event.

Sophomore Jaylan Harris said his experience sparked a desire to be more civically engaged.

“I was motivated to be more involved in what is going on in politics after hearing this quote: ‘Voting is the most powerful nonviolent movement that we have,’” Harris said. “This tour showed me that these people sacrificed a lot just to fight for the rights for us to take part in the electoral process.”