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the volume 96 issue 6
springhillian
March 7, 2013
Students visit Montgomery for civil rights tour By Briana Collins
On Saturday March 2, Spring Hill students traveled to Montgomery, Ala., to partake in a civil rights tour. A group of about 50 Badgers got a chance to visit the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & Parsonage, the Greyhound Bus Freedom Rides Museum, the Civil Rights Memorial Center and the State Capitol. At the Rosa Parks Library and Museum students got to see a replica of the bus where Rosa Parks made history, as well as receive a history Photo by Margarita Perez A group of about 50 students visited the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Montgomery, Ala. Pictured above is the Civil Rights lesson about the Montgomery bus engraved with the names of 40 people who lost their lives in the struggle for equal rights during the Civil Rights boycott. Junior Shardena Jones, who Memorial Movement. attended the trip, said tour guides supposedly had an epiphany,” she said. a Freedom Rides tour. They got to see the clarified why the bus boycott was so successful. Jones explained that King wanted to give up on modest Greyhound bus station where Freedom Jones said they explained that cars were used the Civil Rights Movement because he would Riders used nonviolent methods to protest to transport those boycotting the bus at the receive about 30 to 40 calls a day threatening segregation. time. Those cars would have a church’s name his family, but the kitchen would be his place of The Freedom Riders were a group of average emblazoned on the refuge. “He would citizens who would ride Greyhound buses side and although The most significant room in the go in the kitchen and and other forms of public transportation to they were acting Southern cities to challenge local laws that house was the kitchen because leave the light off as a taxi service, would cause enforced segregation. Often times these bus that’s where Martin Luther King which they did not charge people to think they rides would end violently. a fare. These supposedly had an epiphany... weren’t home,” said The Freedom Riders would usually be attacked makeshift taxis Jones. “One night he once they stepped off the bus, or their bus were instead viewed called out to God and said he was tired and told would be stopped on an isolated stretch of as a non-profit service to the community; they God he wanted to get out of this. But God called road and those on the bus would be arrested accepted donations instead of charging riders. him by name and said, ‘Martin, you have to let and attacked by police for a various number Students also got a chance to see Martin Luther those fears go and forgive.’” of alleged crimes such as trespassing, unlawful King Jr.’s home in Montgomery, the home where Junior Robert Robinson said visiting King’s assembly or violating state and Jim Crow laws. he lived while he was the pastor of Dexter house had the biggest impact on him. “He was According to the National Trust for Historic Avenue Baptist Church. This stop was popular there. It was surreal being in the same house he Preservation website, this Greyhound bus station among the students who attended the tour. lived in and the same house that was bombed,” was preserved and turned into a museum less Jones believed this experience touched her most. said Robinson. “The tour guide even showed us than a year ago. “The most significant room in the house was the the spot on the ground where the bomb hit.” kitchen because that’s where Martin Luther King Continued, see News page 4 Students also had the opportunity to go on
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