Reflections along the National Civil Rights Trail

This week, Sarah and I returned from a 10 day trip to the south. We traveled in part to escape the winter chills of the North in January. We were also looking for a way to spend some time made open on account of our inability to lead our tour to the Holy Land. Our time on the road proved to be a gift and revelation.

We have long dreamed of visiting significant sites of the American Civil Rights movement. Growing up in the 50’s & 60’s our formative years were shaped and influenced by this historic era. Though many of the events occurred more than 50 years ago their impact rippled a resonance of truth in our hearts to this day.

Starting in New Orleans we traveled in a counter-clockwise fashion to witness the sites along the National Civil Rights Trail. We drove through five states and countless communities along the way. These included Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Counter was the right direction as we went back in time to witness the ground breaking and heartbreaking events that have shaped our country. 

In all the locations we visited there were excellent museums that recorded the voices and the textures of these tumultuous times. Many places anchored their presentations with the advent of slavery in America. It was unnerving to read and imagine the tragic transfer of millions of humans from Africa to America. 

We learned about the many heroes that arose in the 250 years of slavery and the subsequent 100 years of Segregation. Many of them were people of faith who found courage to resist the cruelty and degradation of their condition. We also discovered the ways and methods that were instituted to systematically separate and negate people of color in our country. 

Somewhere on the road we realized our journey was a pilgrimage. We found so many echoes of the Holy Land and the life of Jesus along the way. Our Lord was humble, and related to the outcast. He depended upon extra-human strength to persevere through immense hardships. So many of the brave individuals who led the way to greater civil rights were humble. They ascribed to non-violence and helped to create a ‘beloved community’ for support. 

Names like Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, John Lewis, Ralph Abernathy, Fanny Lou Hamer and Martin Luther King, jr. were sterling examples of faith forged in the crucible of conflict. It was inspiring to walk the Edmund Pettus Bridge where ‘Bloody Sunday’ played out on behalf of voting rights. It was chilling to view the black & white footage in Birmingham of youth being attacked by dogs and pummeled with water hoses. It was humbling to sit on a bus as Rosa Parks did in Montgomery Alabama. And uplifting to speak with congregants in Atlanta at King’s home church, Ebenezer Baptist.

Along the way we read aloud from various books pertaining to this time. Sarah read from Coretta, the autobiography of Coretta Scott King. I read from Parting the Waters, by Taylor Branch. We also read selections of original documents, like King’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’, and the testimonies of Freedom Riders. These words helped prepare our hearts and eyes for the settings we were to enter. 

The Civil Rights movement began as a disparate and organic phenomena. Compressed by years of unmitigated pressure, Blacks in America revealed the diamond of their desire: Freedom. Along the way they gifted not only our country but the world with the truth and beauty of our founding documents. That ‘all men are created equal’. This was and is an audacious claim that we are still living into. 

This ten day trip has inspired us to begin crafting a tour sometime in the future through Cathedral Travel.  This tour will cover the sites so well preserved along the National Civil Rights Trail as places of discovery and hope. At Cathedral Travel we are interested in learning about the intersection of faith and history. Our experience was a daily dialogue about the impact of faith in our nation’s history. We look forward to welcoming you to join us in this conversation!