American History - Civil Rights
Walk in Dr. King’s Footsteps
This week long immersion into American history lets students experience it….where it happened. Students will travel back in time to walk in the footsteps of Dr. King, as he marched for freedom and equality. Students will explore the events from the past and journal about their visceral experience.
Leg 1- Back to the Start
Students will fly into Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and travel to Whitney Plantation.
This is one of the best preserved Antebellum Sugar Cane Plantations in the south. Students will learn about what life on this planation was like for those enslaved.
Students will journal this visceral experience by creating a poem about life on the planation.
Leg 2 - Emmett Till
Students will travel up to Glendora, Mississippi and take a tour of the events surrounding Emmett Till.
From the corner store to the court house in Sumner, students will see first hand where these events took place.
Students will explore the events surrounding Emmett’s abduction, the acquittal, and the impact on the African American community.
Students will journal about the events they experienced today and why this may have caused the start of the Civil Rights Movement.
Leg 3 - Rosa Parks - Courage
Students will travel to Montgomery, Alabama and explore the birth place of the Civil Rights Movement. Including
The Rosa Park Museum
The Dexter Ave King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. King started his ministry
Dr. King’s home
Later that day, students will walk in the foot steps of Dr. King on the Selma to Montgomery trail over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where voting rights marchers encounter law enforcement, which lead to “Bloody Sunday”.
Students will learn and explore the tactics used against peaceful demonstrators, later journaling about this experience and its influence on the American people.
Leg 4 - Birmingham, the turning point
Students will explore how Brimingham became a turning point in fight for civil rights. They will
Tour the Civil Rights Institute
Tour the 16th Street Baptist Church, bombed by Klansman in 1963
Birmingham Jail - A Letter
They will learn how a low turn out of volunteers led to the use of “students”, who were a focal point in the non-violent demonstrations to desegregate the city.
Students journal entries will include a writing prompt about how they can impact change.
Leg 5 - Selma
Students will explore the National Voting Rights Museum and Brown Chapel where Dr. King started the Voting Rights March.
Students will learn about Viola Liuzzo and Freedom Riders, how their sacrifices helped the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Students will journal about the sacrifices made by those outside of the African American community.
Leg 6 - Dr. King
Students will travel to Memphis, Tennessee, following the final days of Dr. King’s life, experiencing his “I’ve be on the mountain top” speech, predicting his own death the night before his assignation. Student’s will explore the Lorraine Motel and his final moments.
Students will make their journal entry about their experience, and feelings, on this week long immersion into the struggle for freedom and justice in 1950’s and 60’s America.
Students will fly from Memphis to BWI at the conclusion of this day.
Program Details
Date of program: 7/14 -7/20
Length: 7 days
Grade Range: 7th to 12th
Maximum Capacity: 10 students
Cost: $2250
Registration: Click Here