Tuesday, April 30, 2013
My Experience in Selma,Alabama so far!!
While on the bus they asked us a question "What do we feel we should stand for?" I had to think long and hard about that one,but I thought back to this morning and then my brain clicked "EQUALITY!" I want to stand for equality ,because we should be able to go into a store,walk down the street, and do things together period with people of a different race. We should never have to feel uncomfortable because others don't want to accept equality. So from now on I want to take stand for "EQUALITY" because I have 6 younger siblings and I want them to accept others for who they are not for how they look.
Aurelia S. Dillard
Needing a cause.
So I am sorry for this but I needed to get it out. I went to my room early last night as some as might have noticed because I have issues eating. As soon as I got to my room and a while after I started to cry. This whole trip has been so much to intake and had been very overwhelming. As much as this trip is an amazing experience, this trip has made me realize how truely meaningless my life has been so far. The people ofthis movement were brutalized, tortured in a sense, and some even were killed. But they fought peacefully to change the world and inspire others. For those who do not know those are two of my goals in life along owning 7 cats. But yeah to change the world and inspire is what I dream to do everyday and honestly is is part of the only reason I am still here today. Anyway I realized last night that this movement and these people did all of that. They fought peacefully, never giving up hope and changed the world while I am too worried about the boy I like thinking I was crazy because he catches me staring at him all the time. I have done nothing with my life and seeing what these people have done has made me realize how much I truely hate myself for not finding my cause as these people did.
-Alyce
Civil Rights Trip Simmons High School A long Time's Journey
This experience for our school is amazing..us being a group of young adults experiencing and being with different cultures as really brought us together...sometimes you make think as what we call "not fitting in" a problem, but when you really look at it as soon as you say hi to a person you have already become friends.. Traveling with the children from Baltimore was a first time experience for the 10 seniors that came..As we traveled to Alabama we came across different scenarios dealing with different people.. We as a group of young teens never thought we would be in different situations where we would be stared at or was thought about in someone's head...one thing I thought about today was voicing your opinion, back then blacks didn't really have a option to voice out there opinion. That's why much didn't get done because they tossed out the intelligence of blacks and listened to what the opposite race had to say..if they listened to blacks back then I think that a lot of stuff that happen wouldn't have happen because the different opinions would be in the newspaper and everyone could read it and make a decision on it...another problem is people back then didn't have love for each other they had so much hatred in Psalms 45:7 it says thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows..if everyone got along the way we do now we could've worked together to accomplish some things back then..instead they wanted to be violent and cause lots of damage...one thing I don't get today is back then the whites fought us because they didn't like us, and today we fight our own color whereabout we are suppose to help one another but instead we talk about each other and we judge each other..some people may not care about what happen because they may say "we'll I wasn't in it so why should i care" even though you may not care you should be concerned about the people that brought you here today..
Grace Lowery- Senior of 2013 Simmons High
Where there is unity there is strength.
Terrance
Unity and Dreams
Jaylon Porter
Monday, April 29, 2013
I Hate the South and, to Some Degree, America
After touring the school facilities we left and grabbed lunch on the way to somewhere where disgusting things have occurred, somewhere I despise, only after today. I will have to separate this paragraph from the next, despite its short length, because food and the following topic should not be written about in the same stroke of the pen or typing of a keyboard.
Emmett Till. A boy who was brutalized for allegedly crossing a color barrier in 1955 by flirting with a white women. I shan't go into his life story, go experience it for yourself, but I will describe my feelings after researching it for myself and visiting the place that pushed the stroller holding human morality downhill: Money, Mississippi. I researched Till and his story, starting with his background, ending with the trial for his untimely murder. I read and I read and I read, and it only took me twenty seconds to read about the horrible events that occurred and, subsequently, become horrified and distraught and hateful and disgusted and so, so much more. Thoughts such as, "I hope they [racist people] all die" and "That's abhorrently disgusting" rang though my head. I hated the story, I was disgusted of the people and their actions. "How could someone stand to defend such reprehensible human beings, such filth?" I asked myself. As I write this my feelings have subside and my writer's voice has come out, and I find it harder and harder to express the disgust and internal rage I felt. I was lost for words.
As we stood in Money at the Bryant's store, I watched others laugh and socialize happily, not fully realizing the terrible things which had occurred at that place, while I found it difficult to exit the bus, to even rise from my seat. I resented their happiness and their blind disregard to the history which had began there. I teared up so much on the bus and was still tearing up on the ground of the dilapidated store. I may as well have been in Dachau, Auschwitz, Belsen: Tills murder, though not at as large of a scale, was holocaustic. I went back on the bus afterwards and remained silent for some time. Disgusted and harboring pent up ire, I held my words until they became too painful to withhold. I was angered at the persistence of some of the students to disregard the moment and the privilege which they'd just had in experiencing such history. I had to speak. No, I didn't denounce them for their ignorance, but I did express my disgust and hatred of the Bryant's and all their supporters and all of the racist people, and frankly, though it didn't say it, the South.
That's all I have to say for now: this day is just one more reason for me to hate the world, it is such a horrible place in which the racism is still abundant.
-Antonio Lunn
To White for Blacks. To Black for Whites
-ERW
A day I'll never forget
Kyla Roberts
Reflections on a long Sunday
The most memorable moments for me were experienced in the two museums. In the Little Rock Museum, I felt extreme sadness while observing an exhibit on Emmett Till, the fourteen year old boy who had been murdered by two white store owners while traveling down south. At the top of the exhibit, a picture of Till and his mother smiling was featured. He looked like a kid I might have known today. Underneath was a picture of his mother weeping hysterically as her son's coffin arrived. These two images really broke my heart. I am not a mother, so I couldn't even begin imagine how terrible the pain of losing a child must have been.
In the Civil Rights Museum, I experienced two similar emotions. While standing on the balcony where MLK was assassinated, I felt extreme discomfort. Looking into his motel room, untouched since his untimely death, I felt a particular emptiness, like something invaluable had been stolen. In the museum, I watched on a screen a clip of one mother talking about teenagers who had gone down south to help with voting registration for black people. "They weren't expecting a bed of roses" I recall her saying. "But they also didn't expect to be killed." Once again I was heartbroken.
Seeing and hearing the voices of those who have experienced incredible loss in their lives, and being on the balcony where the world lost a great man, all at once I felt an intense hatred. Who was so evil that they would murder someone's child? Who was so evil that they would take the life of a man who wanted nothing but good for the world? I was disgusted. I wanted the pain Till's mother felt to be inflicted on her son's killers, and everyone else in the world like them.
But in that moment, I remembered what Dr. Sybil had told us. One of the only black students in the Central High school in Little Rock, she was harassed and shunned every day. When asked about whether or not she forgave her peers, she replied saying that she forgave from day one. That forgiveness had been crucial to ensuring her inner peace at that time.
I ended the day pondering. Did I have the strength to forgive?
JNC
I.M.A.G.E is everything
-Victoria
The immorality of poverty
As we continued through the museum, the exhibit mentioned that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was against the Vietnam War because he thought it was wasting much needed money. It detailed the concept of the immorality of poverty. We grow up knowing that poverty is horrible and to be grateful for all that we have, but the idea that poverty is actually immoral was new to me. Although it was new I realized its accuracy immediately. It is immoral to sit around and watch people starve when a lot could be done both by the government and us to fix that. The US spends more money on the military than any other country yet the poverty rate was 16% as of 2012. This means that 1 in 7 people still suffer from poverty.
Ole Sybil !
-Naomi Evans
Have you forgiven lately?
Attention to Detail
My experience so far
#over my circumstances, giving me another chance , he reins
-Jordan
Lions and Tigers and Beale Street, Oh My! April 28,2013
We went to a few more places and did a few more things, but, being that I was on edge already, nothing was more unnerving than the multiple discriminatory looks from different White people. I don't know if it is a bias within me, but as far as I could see there were no racist Black people. Yes, there were a few black people who were drunk and maybe suspicious, but not blatantly racist.
All in all, I guess Beale Street was a good adventure for me: it took me out of my comfort zone and introduced me to the many problems still present in the South.
-Antonio Lunn
CHURCH...PREACH
-Justin
New friends
Being Jewish I had never gone to church, and was nervous about how I would feel being there. As soon as i walked In, I already felt welcomed and even though I felt strange, it was a good strange. I didn't sing the songs or repeat the psalms but I still felt connected to everyone there in some spiritual and emotional way. The energy in that room was endless and it was possibly one of the best mornings of my life.
-CBK
Observation MLK'S Assassination.
KEVON
Our first day - Rhea & Frenchie
Can you guys add and give more details in your post? What made it easier to meet new people as the days going? Being that people are together what makes the trip more valuable and memorable. How did the overnight bring you guys together?
The bus really gave us a chance to interact with people, and I was able to bond with new individuals over food. -Rhea
How???
The road trip
Darius Alston
