National Civil Rights Museum

On  January 23 we visited the National  Civil Rights Museum .  First the group saw a timeline of the Civil Rights history . It was full of important events that happened during the Civil Rights . Looking through the timeline , I was very surprised . I noticed Segregation was not that long ago . Segregation ended in 1954 , after theBrown V Board case .  It made me realize that my grandparents went through the hard times of segregation .  Around that time they might have been in elementary school . Out of the whole timeline that affected me the most . I also looked at James Earl Ray past , the killer of Martin Luther King .  He was a criminal even before the assassination of Martin Luther King . He got arrested before and he robbed a bank . I was so angry because if they would've already arrested him and kept him in jail , he would've never assassinated Martin Luther King .  It was surprising to me that people never got caught being a criminal , but always got locked when they thought a black harassed a white .  Later on in the day we visited Lorraine Motel , where Martin Luther King got assassinated .  I was very emotional , when walking on the balcony .  It made me feel so powerless when walking on the balcony . I was walking right in the spot where Martin Luther  King got killed . When looking through his Motel , room 306 . I saw ciggarates in an ash tray . I never knew Martin Luther King smoked . Its sad that he didn't want to ruin his perception of what people thought of him . But back at that time people were so judgmental .  So I could understand why he did hide it .  But visiting the National Civil Rights museum was a god experience overall . I learned and gained so much knowledge .

Sharniece Adams, City Neighbors 

Erected Statuses

Erected statues immortalizing students, museums solely dedicated to courageous protesters, and plaques commemorating injustices that brave individuals seemed to tower over my accomplishments thus far. I felt distant from the Civil Rights Movement. It was as if the achievements made in the movement were beyond me. But the talk with Dr. Sybil Hampton showed that even small change can be monumental.

At school, I have struggled to move forward with diversity and open students minds to change. I felt as though being aware and speaking to others about being aware wasn't enough. But Dr. Hampton, talked about how being silent can be the worse. I definetly can't say I have not played the role of the bystander, but I can say she made me feel better about when I do speak.

Ty, Park School 

Central

Visiting Little Rock Central High School was an incredibly moving experience for me. After touring the school and learning about the struggles of the Little Rock 9, we went to the visitor center, built across the street. What I found particularly interesting was a section dedicated to psychologists Kennith and Amy Clark, who conducted an experiment using dolls, showing that segregation damaged school children. They gave young African American school children each a black and white doll, and asked them a series of questions. When they asked the children which doll was the "nice" doll, the children lifted the white one. When they asked which was the "dangerous" doll, the children chose the black doll. This experiment struck me because it is horrendous that African American children wanted to be more like white children, even though they treated them terribly. 

Jordan Greenberg, Park School

Sunflower Freedom Project

On of the most inspirational experience that I had on this trip was when we visited Sunflower County Freedom Project. Coming into this I really didn't know what to expect but when we began to listen to the stories I was really surprised. We eventually learned that the schools and the county were both segregated. This came as a surprise to me because of the fact that I had never heard of it until just then. You'd think that a topic that big you would have heard at least something about it but I haven't and that kind if made me upset. The all black school is a poor public school where the teachers don't care and don't really teach the kids and at some points will sit on their phones and not pay attention. While at the other school it's a private school and the kids there get privileged with extra curricular activity's and opportunity's in the world.The great thing that the Sunflower County Freedom Project does is that they do their best to give these children an opportunity to get away from Sunflower County and have a good education instead of their public school one. I believe that with out the Sunflower County freedom project have done a great job and I want to come back one day to help because I think this is a monstrosity that people are unaware of the severity of this situation. 

Tivon, City Neighbors 

No Words

I have no words for what I just experienced. I am so struck by how people are still living, experiencing, and understanding today's world. On this trip, we have mostly visited memorials, monuments, and churches that display the successes of the civil rights movement. Sites that commemorate leaders like Martin Luther King and John Lewis and Rosa Parks. And it's amazing to see the progress out society has made. That blacks are no longer enslaved and killed merely because of the color of their skin. That blacks no longer have to fear for their lives as they walk down the street. And it truly inspires me to help continue that progress in today's world. But after trucking hours and hours on our bus, we arrived at a place quite different from the previous sites we've visited. Listening to senior Toysha who was a part of the Freedom Project in Sunflower County, Mississippi, opened my eyes to the injustices that still exist today and really receive no attention. She attends a public school that consists of only black students, while the private school in the town is allotted for the white students only. In fact, white students receive scholarships to attend the private school based on the fact that they fear for their lives by attending the public school. As I listened to her story and how she answered my questions, I was stunned and extremely impressed. Stunned that our society STILL judges people based on the color of their skin. And impressed that Toysha and her peers are brave enough to talk directly about this obvious racism and figure out ways to prevent it. How is it that it is almost 60 years since the Civil Rights Movements initially began and injustices like these are still occurring in the country? Where does it end? I can't really write down all that going through my head honestly. I am embarrassed for our country. Scared for those who suffer. And angry at my own race. 

Geneva Trovato, City College

The Mississippi Delta

1/21/14

Today, we traveled back in time to the 1950’s.  Visiting Simmons High School and the Sunflower County Freedom Project meant returning to the times we’ve been learning about on the trip.  We took a trip to the world of segregation.  Pure segregation.  Where you live, who you interact with, where you go to school, is defined almost solely by race in the Mississippi Delta.  It’s about white and black.  In each area, there is a dividing line between the two races and it isn’t crossed.  Sure, Baltimore is super segregated, one street wealthy and white, the next poor and Black.  But I’m not sure I’ve ever seen such obvious, blatant segregation as I did in Mississippi today.  The Mississippi Delta is 70% black and 30% white.  The public schools are almost 100% black.  The private schools are almost 100% white.  If you’re poor and you’re white, you can get a scholarship to go to private school because your “safety is in danger at public schools.”  If you’re black, maybe you’ll get to go to private school, but only because the school needs the funding they get for having a few minority students.  That’s it.  The public schools and the private schools don’t interact, they don’t play each other in sports, they don’t participate in after-school activities together. 

The most upsetting thing is that the Freedom Project focuses on teaching Civil Rights Movement to the kids and taking them to the places where their history, was made, while they live exactly the life of black kids before Brown v. Board of Education.  People fought and died for the right for every child in this country to get a good, equal education, and these kids know that.  But their world is one that denies them this basic right because of the color of their skin and not the content of their character.  Here these kids live in full awareness of the segregation, of the fact that after the struggle for integration, association with white people is barely an option.  When we asked the kids at the Freedom Project about their interactions with white people, they described how going into the white part of town meant avoiding the dogs that the white residents let loose on them as they come by.  Let me make this clear: its 2014, and major parts of this country are split down a line based on race, private schools are for white children, and dogs prevent black children from venturing out of their neighborhoods. 

The night before, the Park chaperones told the Park students that we need to be prepared for the abject poverty we would witness at Simmons today, but that’s not what it felt like when we met the kids there.  They were just very regular people, going about their regular business.  What is upsetting is that these kids are normal people who live in a horrendous situation, isolated and in poverty, through no fault of their own.  We are all the same, but these kids are forced to live in an unequal world, at an unequal school, while kids sit in classrooms a couple miles a way, with all the opportunities to learn, to go to college, and leave the desolate Delta.  They were born into a system that immediately recognizes them as less than, not worthy of our attention.  Their government does nothing for them, gerrymandering districts in Mississippi to serve their interest of keeping minorities from exercising their fundamental American right to vote and better their lives.  I cannot describe how angry it makes me feel that this blatant racism still exists and that nothing is being done about it.  We must finally bring to fruition the ideals that were fought for in the Civil Rights Movement.  It cannot end where it started, with smart, hopeful black children being forced to be satisfied with their station in life.  We cannot allow this in this day and age.  The kids at the Freedom Project’s hopefulness and will to succeed should inspire each and everyone of us to do everything and anything to revolutionize the unequal world we live in.

-Sara P, the Park School of Love

Preconceived Notions

1/21/14

Today has been one of the most emotional days of the trip. However, I also think it was the most informative. It started with a movie we watched on the bus last night on the way to Mississippi called “Crash,” which was all about the stereotypes and preconceived notions we have about people of other ethnicities. Another key theme was about how these preconceived notions affect everyone. The movie tells the story of five different people in a city of all different ethnicities entangled in a web of socioeconomic discrepancy, discrimination, and fear of the unknown.  All of their actions affect the other characters in the movie.  I had trouble believing some of the movie, but it really made me consider the people in my life and our connections.

            Today we visited Simmons high school in Hollandale, Mississippi. This is one of the poorest counties in the nation, and the school has an entirely black population. This was an eye-opening experience in a few ways. Firstly, it made me appreciate the support I have at home from my entire community because not all of the kids at this school have a safety net to fall back on. Similarly, it changed my view of the United States. I was astonished with the fact that, in terms of backgrounds, these kids did not have very much in common with me, however the amount of similarities we shared was shocking. I had no trouble having conversations with these kids because we are concerned about the same things: what we’re going to do after high school, how much we don’t like doing homework, and our favorite sports teams.        

            After Simmons we travelled to Sunflower County to visit the Sunflower County Freedom Project. Starting with Brown V Board in 1954, schools were required to integrate. In this county as well as many others in the United States, the white families didn’t want to integrate so they created cheap private schools that could reject whatever students they chose. Those schools dictate the culture in Sunflower today. There is still segregation in Sunflower. The public school is 100% black. There is a private school that is 100% white except for the football team. The public school has very little funding, and one student told me directly that his school offers “a horrible education.” This system makes interracial interactions very difficult, and it is a very hard system to break because voting is not always promoted, so people who support this segregated system remain in power in the state legislation.  Furthermore, because Sunflower is such a poor and rural county, there are not very many extracurriculars offered by the school. The Sunflower County Freedom Project is an organization that meets everyday after school and gives extra help to students. They promote reading, education, and healthy eating. 100% of their graduates have gone on to study at a 4-year college.

            Today was a very humbling day. From the movie to meeting the students, I realized that I have many preconceived notions that I am not proud of. I don’t even know where most of them come from. I’ve re-thought a lot of my life today because previously I had considered myself a progressive and tolerant person, and now I’m not totally sure if that’s true. A main message conveyed to us by the Sunflower County Freedom Project is that change comes from us as students. Most of my preconceived notions come from my education and from my family and are engrained in myself. This probably makes it difficult to change them significantly, but it’s a very big step to now be able to acknowledge when I am having these notions because now I am able to think about what to do about it From this trip, I hope I am able to go home, re-evaluate my society and life, and make this world better than how I found it.

-Micah, the Park School of Love