I have alluded a couple of times recently to the trip (called Sojourn to the Past) that I am going on during this month. (And, I’m still looking for guest bloggers to provide some content during my absence!) However, as per my usual pattern, it’s probably about time for me to share my itinerary with you all.

I first mentioned the trip on my blog three months ago when I was fundraising for it. Well, I completed my fundraising, partly thanks to a timely scholarship award that I was given from the good folks at Peace Action of San Mateo County, and so next Thursday, I will be off. Here is a look at my very busy schedule while I’m gone.

Thursday, February 14
The trip starts on Thursday very early in the morning. I have to meet the rest of the group at San Francisco airport no later than 4:20 AM! There, we will check in, check our luggage, and all of the other fancy stuff. We will be on Delta Airlines Flight 46, which departs San Francisco at 6:20 AM (PST) and arrives in Atlanta airport at 1:54 PM (EST)–a 4.5 hour flight. However, we don’t get to get any sleep on the flight; we start out the trip with an assignment while we are on the plane! Yep, it’s that kind of a trip–we don’t just get to go around and meet people, there are assignments throughout the entire trip.
Once we arrive, we gather our luggage and get on the buses (the teacher in charge is quick to point out that these are buses with toilets that flussssssshhhhhh), and head over to our hotel. (We’re spending Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at the Marriott Century Center hotel in Atlanta.) Along with dinner, we have a lesson at the hotel about the March on Washington, and then go to visit Stone Mountain, where we will hear King’s “I Have a Dream” speech played in front of (Dr. King had mentioned Stone Mountain in his speech). After that, it’s bed check time.
The accommodations throughout the trip will be interesting, in that there are four students to a room. All of the rooms have double beds, which means that there will be two students to a bed. So yes, the accommodations will be somewhat uncomfortable, but we’ll just have to deal with it. (Although yes, boys and girls will definitely be rooming separately.)

Friday, February 15
After breakfast on Friday, we will get to meet Minnijean Brown-Trickey, who was one of the Little Rock Nine. Not only will she be speaking with us that morning, but she will actually be accompanying us for the entire trip! That evening, we will visit the historic King Center in Atlanta.

Saturday, February 16
Saturday includes a lesson and group discussion led by Minnijean Brown-Trickey, followed in the afternoon by a lesson on Dr. King’s death and a visit to Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King’s eulogy will be played.

Sunday, February 17
We spend the day on Sunday back at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where we meet Rev. Clark Olson, who witnessed the fatal attack on Rev. James Reeb during the 1965 protests in Selma, Alabama. We then get to meet Congressman John Lewis, who was the leader of the SNCC in the 1960s. Then, we board the buses for the trip to Selma (crossing into CST time in the process), during which a lesson will be presented about the 1955 lynching of 14-year old Emmett Till. We stay Sunday night at the historic (and not-quite-as-modernized-as-your-typical-21st-century-upscale-hotel) St. James Hotel in Selma.

Monday, February 18
We spend the day on Monday visiting the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute in Selma, where veterans of the 1965 movement in Selma will give us a tour of the city, where we will get to walk across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, site of the Bloody Sunday march on March 7, 1965. At the end of the day, we board the buses for Montgomery (also in Alabama). Following a very late arrival, we will be staying at the Montgomery Lexington Hotel.

Tuesday, February 19
In Montgomery on Tuesday, we start out the day by hearing a lesson about former Alabama governor George Wallace and his “segregation forever” campaign. We then go visit the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery.
After that, we hop on the buses to Birmingham (also in Alabama), and on the ride, learn about the 1963 Birmingham Movement. Upon arrival in Birmingham, we watch the documentary film Four Little Girls, and meet with the father of one of the girls who was killed in the church bombing. We stay that night at the Alta Vista Hotel in Birmingham.

Wednesday, February 20
Wednesday begins with a meeting with Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who led the movement in Birmingham. We will visit Bethel Baptist Church, where he preached during the movement. We will then visit the Civil Rights Museum & Institute, tour monuments from the movement in Kelly Ingram Park, and culminate with a visit to 16th Street Baptist Church, the site where the four girls were killed in the 1963 bombing. We then bus to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where we study the civil rights leader Vernon Dahmer. We spend the night at the Hattiesburg Holiday Inn.

Thursday, February 21
On Thursday, we get to meet with the surviving family members of Vernon Dahmer, who tell us about their experiences during their father’s assassination. Then we bus to Jackson, Mississippi, where we meet the widow of Medgar Evers at the home where he was killed. We then will bus to Memphis, Tennessee, where we will stay Thursday night and Friday night at the Memphis Holiday Inn Select.

Friday, February 22
On Friday, we visit Little Rock Central High School, the first public high school to be integrated by the Little Rock Nine fifty years ago this year. There we meet Elizabeth Eckford, another member of the Little Rock Nine. We then return to Memphis that evening, where we celebrate the end of the trip by going out to a Memphis Club (that’s right, they take us clubbing) all night long…until 10 PM. (Which for me, is my definition of “all night long.”)

Saturday, February 23
Closing out the trip, on Saturday, we visit the Lorraine Motel, now a national museum, the location where Dr. King was assassinated forty years ago in 1968. We meet with Rev. Billy Kyles, who was with Dr. King when he was shot.
And that wraps up the trip. In the afternoon, we head to Memphis Airport. We depart Memphis at 6:00 PM (CST) on Delta Flight 9700, arriving at Atlanta airport at 8:15 PM (EST). We then catch connecting flight 1591 departing Atlanta at 9:59 PM (EST) and arriving at San Francisco at 12:21 AM (PST), technically Sunday morning. Then, it’s off to home, and off to sleep. Sunday will be a day of rest and recovery for me, before I head back to school on Monday the 25th and face a return to school after missing six days…

I will not be having any kind of technology with me on the trip whatsoever, other than a digital camera (primarily because other technology is not allowed). However, in lieu of blogging the trip, I will be taking a diary with me and I will try to write a good old-fashioned diary entry each night on the trip. I will be republishing these entries here on Webmacster87.info from Thursday, February 28-Saturday, March 8–essentially two weeks after the original dates that they were written. I will also be trying to upload photos to Flickr to coincide with these postings as well. Stay tuned for all of that here on Webmacster87.info, following the completion of my exciting trip.

Tags: Civil Rights Movement, itinerary, School, Sojourn to the Past, speakers, trip