University of Washington Civil Rights Pilgrimage
2015–2018
Steve Scher joins a group from Project Pilgrimage (now Common Power) visiting the meaningful places across the American South and meeting the still-working heroes of the civil rights movement — from the 16th Street Baptist Church, to Emmett Till's marker, to the bridge at Selma.
Robert Moses is a MacArthur Genius award winning hero of the civil rights movement.
Can people with hate and bigotry in their heads find a path towards reconciliation?
The Equal Justice Initiative seeks to get the innocent out of prison and share some grace with even the guilty.
One way we got to know each other on the pilgrimage was by asking each other about our names.
On the Bus with the March 2016 Civil Rights Pilgrimage supported by community members and the UW, Bellevue College and USU
Emmett Till's story still resonates. It motivates people today who are seeking justice and reconciliation
We've got Mississippi on our minds. We traveled to Money, Mississippi, where we stood outside the decaying building that once housed a grocery infamous in American history.
We went to Money, Mississippi to track the legacy of the murder of Emmett Till. The murder was more than 60 years ago, but it isn't forgotten. The pain seems to linger like a heavy shadow over parts of the Mississippi Delta.
There is a direct line from the 60's call for black power to today's black lives matter movement.
Anthony Ray HInton was on death row for 30 years for a crime he didn't commit. The criminal justice system deliberately failed him. A Trump rally can conjure up images of that sort of complacent evil that hides behind anger.
The courage of youth inspired change 60 years ago. That courage is inspiring another generation to stand up to injustice. Courage and Injustice seem to go hand in hand.
The wounds of slavery still fester in the South and across the nation.
Fisk University was the crucible of planning for the civil rights movement
Our names are not our identities, but they can reveal something about ourselves
Martha Hawkins held on to her dreams through tough times in the Jim Crow south.
The foot soldiers of the civil rights movement were shot, beaten, jailed, even murdered. Yet they kept on marching. Love for their community and faith in justice bound them. Music was the glue. Love and Music
From the Mississippi Delta, the call for Black Power, electrified the nation in the 1960's. For some it was an affirmation of hope and strength, a path to economic and political empowerment. black power
For all the ways we devise to pull communities apart, people find ways to rebuild, Community Heart and Soul
History doesn’t stay in the past. The issues that drove an earlier generation to demand justice for all remain unresolved. I’m Cynthia Wanjiku along with Scott MacDonald, Michael, “Renaissance”Moynihan and Sade Britt. We are...
Bob Zellner is a civil rights foot soldier. He marched with Dr. King, with Rosa Parks, with John Lewis. Bob Zellner joined our group ostensibly to provide some historic perspective.
We marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama. The sun was shining 50 years after bloody Sunday. We sang the hallowed songs again.
The teen-aged Della Mae Simpson Maynor so wanted to be on the front line at the voting rights march in Marion, Alabama, February 18th, 1965 that she literally pushed her way to the front.
The wise doctors in our group of 52 strong talked about the tiny millimeters of skin they have that divides us.
President Obama came to Selma, Alabama on the 50th anniversary of the bloody march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to honor those who walked .
Emmett Till was a 14 year old Chicagoan visiting his cousins in Money, Mississippi in 1955 when he was brutally murdered.
James Meredith reportedly doesn't like the statue the University of Mississippi has put up on campus to honor his role in integrating the school in 1962.
Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the heroes of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s. Fannie Lou Hamer Hamer was a voting rights organizer from Ruleville, deep in the heart of the Mississippi delta.
A young woman in a white skirt walked down the street in front of Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas in 1957. A mob of screaming white citizens spit on her, threw trash and tossed spoiled tomato's.
Bernard Lafayette in front of the wall of mugshots of the Freedom Riders at the Freedom Ride Museum photo by Troy Bonnes Bernard Lafayette is still leading in the battle.
Memorial to 16th Street Bombing victims. Photo by Troy Bonnes The dynamite bomb that killed four young girls at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 went off during Sunday services.
Patrick Okocha and Steve Scher on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama Photo by Troy Bonnes On the bus and on our way.
At the 1st Baptist Church in Montgomery, we were met with hugs and handshakes and song. A swirling, all encompassing, all embracing song of love. welcome to montgomery.
On the bus from Atlanta to Tuscaloosa, driving deep into history that still lives on.
Prologue: Kane Hall February 23rd- Anticipation, Trepidation, Empowerment and Song Monday, February 23rd, at the UW's Kane Hall, where David Domke and friends deliver the last of 5 lectures on the civil rights era.
The Legacy of Selma still drives America. UW's David Domke The Legacy of Selma 50 years ago, American citizens were being killed in the fight for the right to vote.