Alabama Freedom Ride of 2008
April 22, 2008
Mr. Robert Greenstein,
Esq.Greenstein & Milbauer,
LLP 1825 Park Avenue,
9th Floor New York,
NY 10035
Dear Mr. Robert Greenstein,
The Alabama Freedom Ride of 2008 toured the principal historical sites of the Civil Rights era in the state, including, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, 16th Street Baptist Street, Kelly Ingram Park, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Rosa Parks Library and Museum, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The Frederick Douglass Academy and West Morris Central High School students were extremely well behaved and flexible with both the altering schedule and rainy weather. Throughout the duration of the journey, the students learned about the Civil Rights Movement, between 1955 and 1968, and its direct influence upon our present political and social realities as a nation. Also, they challenged themselves to comprehend the bravery of the children, young adults, and parents that courageously placed notions of community, civil and human rights, and the principles of the Constitution before their own self-interests and welfare. Simultaneously, the students also learned of the inhumanity and depravity of many white racist that supported racism and all its injurious ramifications, including the death of thousands of African Americans and sympathetic whites who desired racial and political equality.
On Thursday morning, April 03, 2008, the Frederick Douglass Academy students traveled to West Morris Central High School in Chester, New Jersey, where both groups of students boarded a single charted bus and traveled to Washington D.C. Upon our arrival in D.C., we took several pictures on the steps of the Capital and went to see Congressman John Lewis, who was a central member of the Civil Rights Movement. Although we scheduled an appointment with the congressman, he had to cancel our meeting at the last minute due to an emergency that arose. However, we were able to meet with Representative Lewis' aid, who was very informative and enlightening. Then we met with Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen and retired Congressman Ben Gilman. After meeting with these esteemed individuals, we ate lunch at the Union Station. After a brief meal, the group traveled to Alabama throughout the night. It took us approximately eighteen hours to reach Birmingham, Alabama.
On Friday, April 04, 2008, we arrived at our hotel, the Drury Hotel, where we ate breakfast and showered. After recuperating for a moment, we embarked for the day's activities. First, we toured the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and met with Ms. Jackson and Ms. Williams and several other "foot soldiers," who actively worked toward desegregating Birmingham, even in the midst of the authorities unleashing German Shepherds and firing water hoses upon them. Then we participated in a march that commemorated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination 40 years ago. Afterwards, we went to the 16th street Baptist Church, where we learned of the September 15, 1963 bombing of the church, which resulted in the death of four young black children and the grave injury of a fifth young girl. Shortly afterwards, we traveled to the Governor George C. Wallace Memorial-Longshore Rehabilitation Center where we met with Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, another vital member of the Civil Rights Movement. Nearly a year ago, he suffered a massive stroke and he is currently undergoing rehabilitation. However, he was willing to meet with us and permit us to take several pictures with him. Although he was unable to successfully communicate with us due to his debilitating injury, his courageous spirit, indefatigable energy, and commitment to the equality of all persons was a liberating and refreshing experience. Before concluding the day's activities, we went to Kelly Ingram Park, which commemorates the numerous "foot soldiers" who were willing to risk their lives and permit racist practitioners to unleash water hoses, which had the potential to break bones and remove the hair from one's head, in order to demonstrate to the world the moral cause of the movement. In preparation for the following day, we journeyed from Birmingham to Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, which is approximately 93 miles southeast.
On Saturday, April 5, 2008, the students traveled to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. first began his political career, including spearheading the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted for 381 days, and propelled Rose Parks to a Civil Rights member of national distinction. Afterwards, we explored the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, which offered an insightful analysis of the various roots of segregation and how both Mrs. Parks and innumerable other individuals radically challenged the social and political institutions of the time.
Following our tour of the aforementioned institution, we went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center at the Southern Poverty Law Center and viewed a movie that highlighted the ascribed breath of the Civil Rights Era, from 1955, with Emmett Till's death, to 1968, with Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Additionally, the students gained the opportunity to learn of the purpose of the Southern Poverty Law Center and why they continue to monitor hate groups, from white supremacists groups and extremist activists groups that seek to injure and kill various immigrant groups that enter the nation. Lastly, the students amassed in front of the building and took several images around the Civil Rights monument that documented the achievements and losses of selfless Civil Right martyrs.
On Sunday, April 6, 2008, the students traveled from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama to visit the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, where the students learned of the passionate and meaningful exercises and movements that ordinary people orchestrated to challenge the deleterious and racist policies that hindered Blacks from executing their civil and political rights and liberties. Then the students attended an A.M.E. service at the Brown Chapel, which was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s headquarters prior to the Selma-to-Montgomery march. The service was inspirational and reflective of many of the Civil Rights activists' source of energy and faith in an alternative and freer society. Afterwards, we walked over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the staging ground for both John Lewis and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to illustrate to the world the inhumanity and injustice of denying selected groups of people their civil rights and opportunity to obtain social and economic mobility. Resembling the structure of the bridge, the students then journeyed to Lowndes County Interpretive Center where they examined the Civil Rights Movement in greater detail and the importance of voting both in the past, present, and in the future. As we returned to Montgomery, we located a small grave site on the side of the road that memorialized the life of Viola Liuzzo, a white woman who left Detroit and her five children to participate in the Civil Rights movement, in particular to assist African-Americans in Selma, Alabama to register to vote. Fearing Ms. Liuzzo's faithful involvement in the movement, as she drove on the sleepy road to Montgomery, several Ku Klux Klan members pulled along her car and shot her, killing her instantly.
As the trip rapidly concluded and the students prepared to return to home to their respectfully different schools and communities, the students arrived at the state capital. All of the students ascended the stairs of the capital, which consequently was the same place where both Jefferson Davis took the oath of the Confederate presidency and where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. concluded the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery March. Standing proudly upon the steps, the students turned toward the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which stands in the shadows of the capital, and smiled for a single group portrait that encapsulated this extraordinary journey, the students' new historical imagination, and the hope that the future may have an alternative racial and political narrative.
Your financial contribution permitted the students the opportunity to participate in this extraordinary journey. We are truly indebted to you. Without your donation, numerous students would not have seen nor experienced the countless historical tales and sites that have captured their imagination and will lead them to continue their study of American history in college. Although you may will never how your contribution has incalculably changed the lives of so many, may I say from the depth of my spirit, thank you!
Sincerely,
Mr. Redell Armstrong
Visit our Facebook Page
