The Civil Rights trip for Woods Around the World was more than just a class and spring break trip. It was a chance to see the world through the eyes of someone else, to feel the history left on the Pettus Bridge in Selma. This trip was a reminder to me of the power that we have as citizens, as regular people, to change our lives and world around us. The day we spent in Selma was unbelievable; it becomes hard to describe how it felt to be there, to walk around the town. When our guide Joanne took us to the concrete that they gathered on before walking across the bridge that day, we all picked up a pebble. The rock I picked up Joanne told us it was to represent her sister who by the end of bloody Sunday had to receive 27 stitches in her wounds. Her sister walked with the group the next time they went across that bridge. Joanne told us to keep that pebble and when we feel like we are up against the world to take it out and look at it and remember what her sister and her people did when they faced the world. That it doesn’t take money or power to change the wrongs in our lives, it just takes heart and dedication.
That day in Selma was the highlight of the trip, I will never forget that day, and the beauty and people of Selma. Walking around Selma on a perfect day, it was hard to picture the violence that happened there. I believe that Selma’s old live oak cemetery reflects the town, it has a sad undercurrent, a history that you can never forget while you are there, just like the cemetery you always know you are surrounded by those who have gone from this world but the beauty of that place is overwhelming at times. It seems ironic that in Joanne’s favorite place in Selma is a rocking chair on a porch that looks out over the river and bridge that made Selma the place it is today. When Joanne sat down you could see that even after all the things she went through in Selma her love for the town and its people is so easily read on her face. She has spent her life fighting for a better place for future generations to live in. She sat us down at the end of the day and told us that we cannot change those who have come before us; they are already set in their ways. She made it clear to us that our job was to raise our children to be better than we are when it comes to how we treat our fellow man.
Joanne told us that our battle was not going to be marches and protests and getting beaten, it was to simply teach those younger than us. When she signed my copy of her stories she simply wrote “Teach. Read. Learn.” Three simple things that can change the problems we are now facing. The trip was awesome in the truest definition of that word. The trip was made that way not only because of the planning but of the amazing coincidences that occurred. After driving all day Saturday we all woke up and went to Ebenezer Baptist Church where we heard a sermon from Rev. Dr. Lowery. He spoke on where do we as a people go from here? He was not talking about events in the past; he was referring to the election and inauguration of President Obama. How we have reached a point in the journey to the Promised Land that MLK Jr. saw. After this trip I believe that Joanne’s simple words can get us there.
Teach. Read. Learn.
Tags: Civil Rights Trip, Trip Report, WATW
