DAY ONE From London to Montgomery, AL
DAY ONE From London to Montgomery, AL
Good morning from Montgomery, Alabama. We have arrived in the South East of the USA after a smooth flight from Heathrow to Atlanta. On our arrival, we met Willie Spencer, our bus driver for the next few days. During the journey we began to learn some of his story, from his service in Vietnam to his grandparents born into slavery in 1865. We drove the 2 hour bus ride across state lines (and a new time zone) arriving in "Sweet Home Alabama", as the state sign proclaimed to us. We are staying in a hotel right next to the Interstate highway, so our dinner at the Olive Garden was an appropriate introduction to American culture and cuisine.
As we sat at the Olive Garden, each student received a workbook and spent the first part of the evening cutting out their maps, timelines, and sticking in key documents that will frame our time here. The workbook will be full of speeches, testimony, photos, and key legislation that reflected the hopes and struggles of the people who shaped the Civil Rights movement. Some photos from the day are at the bottom of the page.
This morning, Thurs Dec 12, we journey to the Legacy Museum created by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI). Set up by Bryan Stevenson, the museum explores the legacy of slavery, and subsequent racial terror, segregation, and present-day mass incarceration. EJI’s museum attempts to address the USA’s failure to create cultural spaces that have honestly addressed enslavement, lynching, and the consequences of centuries of racial inequality. We are thrilled that we begin this journey at this museum - at the beginning - to face this history of racial injustice. Watch this video to understand the nature of their work.