In Spring 2018, I will lead a Civil Rights Tour to Alabama where we’ll visit Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.
These cities set the scenes for some of the nation’s most iconic civil rights battles. This class allows students to experience the places where black southerners claimed their rights as Americans. Before the trip, students will study the geography, history, and culture of the state focusing on the intersections of race, gender, geography, and poverty. During the trip, students will visit important civil rights sites, meet with current scholars and activists, and explore how Alabama memorializes its difficult history. As our nation debates how to commemorate the civil rights struggles of our past and faces numerous social justice challenges in our present, students can get first-hand experience and knowledge about the region and the issues important to understanding historical memory.