LOOKING AT CIVIL RIGHTS
through black eyes
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United States of America
History teacher Rosemarie Machell was the 2019 recipient of the Heritage Foundation’s Honor Jensen Memorial Award, the proceeds of which she put towards an educational trip to the United States. She reports on the experience here.
I
was fortunate to take up the opportunity to join an educational trip with teachers from all over New Zealand to the USA last September, looking at black civil rights through black eyes. We were there for 16 days for what proved to be a very informative and, at times, confronting trip. One of the great benefits was making connections with other teachers, all of whom teach the topic of Black Civil Rights in their senior history courses. Initially, we had four days in Washington DC, where we visited the White House and the Supreme Court. A memorable highlight was a visit to Ford’s Theatre,
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where President Lincoln was shot while watching a performance. While in Washington we undertook a bicycle tour around the wonderful monuments, starting with the Washington Monument and finishing at the Lincoln Memorial, the place where the march on Washington took place in 1963. This was where Martin Luther King made his famous ‘I have a Dream’ speech. Our guide was a young history teacher who was also a keen cyclist. The visit to the Holocaust Centre in Washington DC was particularly emotional for all of us. We flew out of Washington to the city of Atlanta, which was our first real taste
of the South. While there, we explored the Centre for Civil and Human Rights, and from there we visited Martin Luther King’s boyhood home. A highlight was a tour of CNN and the chance to try our hand at news announcing. From there we continued our travel in two vans, visiting five states – Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas, leaving for home from Dallas, Texas. Our stay in Montgomery, Alabama was very enjoyable as we experienced genuine southern hospitality. The Rosa Parks Museum was well worth the visit, and we found some excellent coffee (almost as good as in New Zealand!)
