These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

I’m writing on the plane right now, up 30,000 or however many feet in the air, en route back to San Francisco. Aside from a near calamity with our return flights, today has been probably my favorite day of the trip, in which we really wrapped up and culminated on everything that we’ve learned over the past ten days.

We had another early morning, once again, and after breakfast, we went back to the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, but this time, we went inside. We were given special players and headphones which amounted essentially to a guided audio tour of the museum, which was a very big museum to walk through. Going through it was like walking back through everything that we had learned for one last time, starting with an exhibit on slavery and various defining events before the Civil Rights Movement began, and then going through further exhibits for each of the major phases of the Civil Rights Movement. The movement then culminated up on the top floor where you could see (through the plexi-glass windows) the two rooms in the motel that were restored to what they were like on April 4, 1968. The room on the left (room 307) was where Dr. King normally stayed (although he didn’t stay in that room in April 1968 because it was occupied), and was a fully made room. The room on the right (room 306) was the room where Dr. King was staying, and was recreated as it would have been at the particular moment, including the sheets partially uncovered, dishes left on the desk, etc. From the observing area we could also see the balcony where he was shot, including the spot where his head hit the ground. That particular spot had been permanently stained because of how much blood there had been, that they replaced that spot with a brick because the blood stain had been too painful to look at at the time.

After we finished going through the museum, we went into an auditorium at the museum where we were greeted by Rev. Billy Kyles, who had been with Dr. King that evening that he was shot in Memphis. He did talk briefly about the evening that Dr. King was shot, but he mostly talked preached about the importance of having dreams, following our dreams, “holding fast” to them. He frequently brought up his favorite quote from Langston Hughes: “Hold fast to your dreams. For if dreams die, you are like broken-winged birds that cannot fly.” His message was really captivating, and you could feel it when, after he spoke, we gave him an eight-minute standing ovation.

After that, we had lunch and the opportunity to personally meet Rev. Kyles, but then we moved on to the wrap-up activity of the trip, and probably may very favorite part of this trip. All 150 of us made a big circle around the room, and then we each had the opportunity to share the biggest strength that we learned and how we were going to apply it when we went home. However, many of us (including myself) took the opportunity to share a personal story of something that affected them, and how what they had learned on this trip had made them look at it in a different way. There were a number of students there that had been struggling to deal with divorced parents and who had had hostility to one of them, but who decided that they were going to apologize and reconnect to their other parent when they got home. One of them said that the trip had helped her get over the grief of having to watch her best friend commit suicide. One of them had talked about how he and his family had built up so much hatred and resentment towards African Americans because of atrocities that a few African American men had done to his family, but that this trip shattered his hate and that he was going to try to live a new life. It was very emotional for many of us, but whenever it got emotional, a number of friends came up to console that person. (And yes, there were plenty of tissue boxes kept handy.) But it was a very special moment for me in a number of ways. First, it really helped to bridge the connection between this trip, the civil rights movement, and everything that I had done, seen, and learned over the past ten days to my life today, and really made clear just how much all of it has to do with our lives. It also helped to remind me how we often make judgments based on what we see on the outside, but just how much more there is on the inside. When I learned about some of the stories that the others shared–these other people who had been complete strangers to me just nine days ago–I ended up looking at them in a completely different light. Even one of the students from my school, who I’ve known for a long time (she’s been a regular volunteer with the Aragon Peace Club), shared a story. She’s the kind of person that you can recognize at school by her big smile and always bright attitude, but she shared about the suffering that she privately goes through inside while her parents are constantly fighting, and she was one of the many who broke down emotionally. For me, those three hours in that circle was by far the most enthralling part of the trip, and probably the part that I will remember most of all.

After wrapping up the trip by singing “We Shall Overcome” as a group, we left for Memphis International Airport, where we proceeded with check in and then bought ourselves some dinner. We all had a flight from Memphis to Atlanta, at which point the Los Angeles folks connected on a flight to LAX, and we connected on a flight to SFO. (The New York folks are staying in Memphis one more night and are flying home tomorrow.) However, our group pretty much filled almost all of the Memphis-Atlanta flight. Unfortunately, around the time that we were boarding prior to our 6 PM departure, we learned that our plane had a fuel leak, and that they were waiting for maintenance to come and fix it. We were worried that we would get stuck in Memphis, but luckily, they were able to fix the fuel leak so that we boarded at 7:00 and took off around 7:20. (Due to the large size of our group, Delta made the very wise move of asking our connecting flights to wait for us. The San Francisco layover had gone from 90 minutes to 10 minutes, and the Los Angeles layover had gone from 60 minutes to -20 minutes.) However, when we arrived in Atlanta, we hurried to our gate only to find out that our flight had been delayed anyway half an hour, so we were luckily able to catch our breath before we had to board.

We’ll be landing in San Francisco in a couple of hours (around 1 AM local time, about 21 hours after we woke up this morning!). It’s hard to believe that Sojourn to the Past is now over, but boy, it was an excellent experience, and certainly one that I’ll always remember.

Tags: AirPort, Delta, diaries, Dr. King, dreams, flight, Lorraine Motel, Memphis, National Civil Rights Museum, Rev. Billy Kyles, sharing, Sojourn to the Past, Tennessee

These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

Today was another very interesting day, but it was one that I had been looking forward to during the whole trip. After breakfast at our hotel in Memphis, we boarded the busses and took our two-and-a-half hour drive over to Little Rock, AK. Along the way, we had a review bus lesson on the Little Rock Nine, and then we watched a documentary film called Journey to Little Rock: The Untold Story of Minnijean Brown-Trickey.

We arrived at Little Rock Central High School, home of the first integration of a public school in the South fifty years ago this year. And man, the place is huge. The whole campus is two city blocks by two city blocks, and as for the campus, it starts out on the sides at two stories, moving towards the center at three stories, then going up to four, and then finally the center of campus has five stories! All I can say is that I assume that the kids that go there sure get their exercise during passing periods!

We started out by visiting the Central High School Historical Site Museum across the street from the school. (Imagine your own high school not only being a National Historic Site, but also having its own museum and gift shop across the street!). The museum was quite a bit smaller than that huge multi-million dollar place we saw in Birmingham, but this one focused on the 1957 integration, on the issues surrounding the integration (such as comparing how Central was funded in comparison to the black high schools in Little Rock), and life after the integration crisis in Little Rock. After that, we had the opportunity to hit the gift shop, where I spent my last dollars on two books and a T-shirt. They also had a corner where they were giving away leftovers from their 50th Anniversary Celebration last September.

After that, we went to Central High School and sat down around their courtyard/reflecting pool. The school doesn’t allow most outside groups to come onto their campus, but they allow our group to come on, which is very exciting. We sat down there and reflected on everything that we learned about in the integration, and asked ourselves if we would allow our friends and classmates to use violent, racist, or other hurtful language towards others without intervening, resolving that we would not do so. We then recreated the experience that the Little Rock Nine had in September 1957 by walking up the front steps of the school.

After that, we all went inside to Central’s auditorium (yes, it’s bigger than the puny auditorium that we’ve got at Aragon), where we met Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine. We welcomed her by giving her a standing ovation in sign language, because she still has flashbacks of her first day at Central and loud noises sometimes cause these flashbacks to occur. In addition to talking about her experiences, she talked about how hurtful language truly was in her life and how it is up to all of us to stop it from spreading. She then had to go back to work (she gave up her lunch hour to come and speak with us).

We then got our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and boarded the bus for the two-and-a-half hour drive back to Memphis. During the ride, we had our final bus lesson, reviewing Dr. King’s last day on earth. When we arrived in Memphis, we went outside of the Lorraine Motel (now a National Civil Rights Museum), which was where Dr. King was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. We sat down in front of the commemorative plaque beneath the balcony where Dr. King was shot, and we listened to King’s “I Have Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which he made the night before he was killed. We then spent time there reflecting on Dr. King, and then boarded the bus.

The bus returned to the hotel, and after about an hour of free time, we went to our last night activity: clubbing on Beale Street. Though frankly, I didn’t really participate in the dancing (not my thing), however the food was good, and inside, there was a family of five that was playing live country music, including the lead singer who was a boy of five or six years old and who also played the accordion, and boy, he was pretty good. I personally had a better time listening to that inside then dancing to the loud godawful rock music they were playing on the cold, outside patio for the majority of the Sojourn group.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Memphis, and then we’ll be headed back home. My, time flies, doesn’t it?

Tags: Arkansas, Beale Street, Central High School, diaries, Dr. King, Elizabeth Eckford, gift shop, Little Rock, Little Rock Nine, Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, museum, National Historic Site, Sojourn to the Past

These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

Today was another long day packed full of things. Some were good, some were so-so, and some were positively awestriking. (I think I’m going to run out of adjectives by this time next Saturday.)

This morning began with the most touching lesson for me thus far: a lesson on Robert “Bobby” Kennedy. He was attorney general under JFK in 1961-1965, a senator from New York in 1965-1968, and a presidential candidate in 1968. After we learned about how he came to fame, we learned about the humanitarian efforts that he did as a senator and how he brought attention to poor people and starving children in the country. We learned about how his campaign formed an unprecedented following in the country, and finally how he was shot the evening of June 4, 1968 (just two months after Dr. King) and died two days later. It’s intriguing to think about how our country might have been different had he survived and became president in 1968 instead of Richard Nixon.

After that, we had a workshop that was co-led by one of the Sojourn teachers and by Minnijean Brown-Trickey. The workshop was about institutionalized racism, and discussing the prevalence of racism in many places today, albeit more subtly. The workshop seemed kind of so-so to me though, partly because we had to sit on the floor throughout, but also because the other students often went off on a tangent or were peacefully arguing over a technicality.

We went to a food court in a big Atlanta mall for dinner, and we were given an allowance to spend on whatever meal we wanted. It might have been better if it was later than 4:30–we had just had lunch at 1:00. However, I did get to try dinner at a place with the most interesting french fries I’ve ever seen: they looked kinda like the Chex breakfast cereal, except more 2-D, and appropriately bigger than the cereal.
After that, we went back to the MLK Historic Site, and saw a film about Dr. King’s last day on earth, including listening to and analyzing Bobby Kennedy’s speech that night in Indianapolis. We passed by Ebenezer Baptist Church and took some pictures (we would have gone inside if it wasn’t under renovation), and finally, we ended the day at the gravesites of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King, where we had a moment of reflection.

Tomorrow will be a big day when we will meet and hear from Rev. Clark Olsen and Congressman John Lewis, and then move along into Selma. It is now time for curfew, so good night.

Tags: Atlanta, Bobby Kennedy, Coretta Scott King, diaries, Dr. King, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Georgia, gravesite, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Sojourn to the Past, workshop

These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

Today was another long day. After our 8 AM breakfast, we started with what was titled “The longest lesson of our life.” Personally, I’m not sure of the validity of that statement, but I thought that it was certainly worth it. The lesson was about the Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 and about the Little Rock Nine’s integration of Little Rock Central High School. We met each of the nine (through a movie) and were introduced to their struggle to get into Central and what they endured. We then went into how the students there could permit such atrocities hapening in their school, and thus, the dangers of being a silent witness.

Then, Minnijean Brown-Trickey (one of the Little Rock Nine) spoke. She talked about how a lot of what goes down in history is unimportant to teenagers because the historians are old people, and she discussed how the events surrounding the Nine were really a fight about who had the power and the law: state government or the federal government. She then answered some questions, and then we did a “give back” session, where we shared with Minnijean the words we used to describe her and why.

We then had a lesson on Medgar and Myrlie Evers, who were voting rights leaders from Mississippi. We learned about the deplorable voting rights laws in Mississippi and learned about the horrendous things that its state government did to spy and cause the systematic killing of black voters and their sympathizers. It was shocking and amazing to learn that the same things that this country criticized Nazi Germany, China, and the Soviet Union for took place here in this country.

Finally, after dinner, we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Historical Museum. We had exclusive access there tonight, and got to take a very close look at the six major exhibits there: Segregation, The King Family, Call to Lead, Visiting the Mountain Top, Expanding the Dream, and Overcoming Loss. It was a very interesting and very interactive museum, with lots of pictures, words, and videos. We were also permitted to take pictures, which you’ll be able to see on my Flickr account once I get them posted.

Tomorrow we’re in for another lesson-filled day at the hotel, but already, in only two days, I have learned so much, and am looking forward to what’s still to come.

Tags: Arkansas, Atlanta, Central High School, civil rights, diaries, Dr. King, Georgia, history, King Center, Little Rock, Little Rock Nine, Medgar Evers, Minnijean Brown-Trickey, Mississippi, Myrlie Evers, Sojourn to the Past, Sovereignty Committee, voting rights

These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

Today was the first day of Sojourn, and boy, it was a long one. I was up at 2:30 AM this morning in order to shower and get ready, including last minute packing. (As usual, I forgot something…this time is was the shampoo.) We got to the airport a little after 4:00, and our flight went smoothly, arriving on time at around 1:45 PM (Eastern time now).

We had some assignments to start on the flight. I finished the assignment on Minnijean Brown-Trickey (which will be due tomorrow morning in order to meet her). I also finishesd up the reading on John Lewis, though I need to do that assignment still (due on Sunday).

Once we got through the airport, on the buses, to the hotel, and checked in, it was about 3:45 PM and we went into the meeting room for a lesson on the 1963 March on Washington. This included an introduction to the principles of nonviolence (which Dr. King wrote, by the way), in addition to talking about how that march was organized. We then looked in depth at the speeches made that day by John Lewis (SNCC) and Dr. King (SCLC). It was indeed an interesting lesson and helped to better expand the significance of that march to me.

After dinner, we went to Stone Mountain, which is pretty much the Confederate equivalent of Mount Rushmore, featuring carvings of Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, and Stonewall Jackson. After we took some pictures, we read quotes from John Lewis’ book, and then we played Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, reflecting it off of the mountain. We then had time to reflect on the seventeen minutes of that speech and what we felt listening to it.

Personally, I thought about the contrast between the figures carved in the mountain, who represented force, and violence, and destruction, versus Dr. King’s message of nonviolence, kindness, and calling for doing constructive things, to come together as a people. To me, it was a very profound, touching moment.

Right now, I’m writing this in the hotel lobby and socializing with other folks on the trip. There’s 150 students here representing about a dozen schools from the Bay Area, the Los Angeles area, and the New York area. I’m already very glad that I’m here and am looking forward to a good trip.

Tags: Atlanta, Confederacy, diaries, Dr. King, Georgia, Mount Rushmore, Sojourn to the Past, Stone Mountain