That was the best part of the trip. I was going in open minded, I had no idea what I was gonna get out of it and I ended up learning so much about it. The MLK Program is a program for academically talented, historically underrepresented students to help them frame forms of social justice and activism. The first year course is designed to introduce our first year students, to Dr. King, but also to the civil rights movement. They all traveled together on the Civil Rights tour, which means go into Atlanta, Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. Physically, I'm ready. I bought my little shampoo bottles of all packed and ready to go. But mentally, I don't think I'm going to be prepared. I like to go with the flow. And so when we get down there, I'll just let myself get immersed in everything we're doing. I'm really interested, and really ready to learn and experience something pretty life changing with my peers. I am super excited. Like I've never had this experience before. So I'm just ready to take in as much information as I possibly can. I'm hoping that I can learn more about like black history in general, I guess, because I don't really know that much about it. And I realized that in our class with rock. I'm really excited to meet each of these people. Because we're gonna meet all these people that experienced real, horrible things. And to get that like to get the words from the primary source that will really change who I am. On this street, right here, Auburn Avenue, the only Street in the city where black people can own and operate a business, what they did here was duplicate on this street, everything they were locked away from in the mainstream, what you are experiencing right now is a benefit of their sacrifice. Those people died for you. People were beaten-- so you'd have a better life. Okay? She reminded me of like my aunts on my dad's side mom. Just full of energy sassy. However. When we gathered on what is now known as Bloody sun, the last piece. You're all holding history in your hand. Now you could keep that rock or you could throw it out. If you keep that rock and take it back to wherever you live, you need to put it where you can see. Where you can see it every day, every day. Because when you see injustice committed against anyone in the whole rainbow of humanity, and you feel like you can't do anything, go pick up that rock and hold it in your hand. And take from it the strength of the ordinary people who stood on that same rock and made history that not only changes the exam, but America. When we went into Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and Wanda Battle was in there. It takes courage to go stand before your peers and your family, folks, and present yourselves. Oh yeah. And she brought everybody up. She was like, alright, alright guys, who can sing-- who can sing. She stopped me and she's like, you are a really strong, confident woman, and you like to public speak. And you're good at this. And you're good at that, like things she should not have known about me. I was like, Whoa. Every speech of Dr. King's listen to, if he were to be standing in this church right now delivering any one of them. Any one of them will be relevant. Right now. That was the best part of the trip. I think the trip in total made me think a little differently, especially for our specific class with the scholars. I was going in open minded I had no idea what I was gonna get out of it. And I ended up learning so much about it. What I really needed was some solace that things were okay. And the trip didn't really provide that until the end. We went to the Civil Rights tour. Right? It seems like so long ago. So I just want to check in with you all first to see where are you? I'm very grateful for Rock for actually giving us our debriefing session. There was no like, this is how we change this-- to like this is how we can move on-- or like there was like very little at least for me. We're learning a lot, but like, and that's good for us that we're able to like, gain like a great like foundation like knowledge and like have like facts. But then like, what do we do with that? Like, how do we move forward ? How do we actually create change? As we talk about introducing our students, and just laying a foundation? We have to experience that, right? We have to get you as informed as possible. We began to go into these traps, like I'm one person, I can't do anything about it. These problems have been here longer than I have, what can I realistically do? Right, so there's a cycle of cynicism, we have to give you the truth. We have to expose you to what really happened. So you can feel that weight, and the severity of how important these moments in time were and how they still shape and affect us today. But then there's also that cycle of hope, Mark, like that feeling of hopelessness. Everything that you all are feeling is natural, right. But that cycle of hope is like where we go now. That allowed us to realize that everything isn't doom and gloom for us, that we actually have some hope. What we do as individuals, the conversations that we engage in, the space that we share has an impact. And so it's important for us to sort of maintain that consciousness that what we do matters. I feel more determined to like, succeed and fight for what I believe in. I think it kind of gives me the energy or the inspiration to continue doing like advocacy work or to continue just being the change I want to see.
