Student Projects

This trip really isn’t about the Civil Rights Movement of the 50’s and 60’s; it is about the battle today.  Not all of our battles are about black and white.  They will be about poverty, good education, jobs, food, and raising people up.  Like Bob Mants said, each generation has its own race to run and this Odyssey is more about the present than the past.
- Paige

There will always be ups and downs, but I want to help to make more ups and less downs.
- Alex

Changing the world for the better has just become one of my life’s goals.
- Katie

“What are you gonna do?  Would you help your neighbor, or someone abroad?  Would you have marched?”  Such soul-searching inquiries could not have been asked by people I looked up to more.  Their past gave my present a reason to look forward to the future.
- Michaela

Click to Play HMMS and BAMA Kids singing together in Camden

Click to Play our final sing in Selma

Sheryl Threadgill Mathews – our host in Camden

Katie lunches with the Camden Chief of Police

We lunch with many officials from Camden and Wilcox County

Ms. Kittie the owner of Ms. Kittie's restaurant, a soul food wonder

Wynona says goodbye to Mary Lee Bendolph, who surprised us by meeting us in Camden

Black Belt Treasures, an artist coop

McKenzie and Mary Lee look at the quilts at Black Belt Treasures

Pen Pals: Kristen Pettway and Maeve Campman

Elkanah gives her speech at Antioch Baptist Church

Colin gives his speech at Antioch Baptist Church

Making wishes and commitments to stop child abuse by tying ribbons on a tree with the BAMA Kids

We spend time with the BAMA Kids singing, sharing speeches, and reciting poetry

We go to Snow Hill Institute

We spend time with Donald Stone

We play a moonlight Ultimate Frisbee with kids from Camden at the Snow Hill Institute

Good Night

Phoebe delivers her speech at Selma Park

Nathan deliver his speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Katie, alive and well, delivers her speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Brook delivers his speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Ben delivers his speech under the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Colin gives his speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Dante gives his speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Emma delivers her speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Zeb gives his speech at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Wynona gives her speech again at Selma Park next to the Edmund Pettus Bridge Edit

Edmund Pettus Bridge seen from the Alabama River

Joanne Bland hold court at Richard's Cafe

Walking the streets of Selma with Joanne

We gather at Brown's Chapel

Harper gives her speech in the voice of John Lewis at Brown's Chapel

Gabriel F. brings the voice of Marcus Garvey to life at Brown's Chapel

Joanne gives Katie a little piece of history

HMMS in front of where Joanne grew up

Casey gives her speech at First Baptist Church, the SNCC headquarters during the Selma voter registration effort

Jackie gives her speech at First Baptist Church, the SNCC headquarters during the Selma voter registration effort

HMMS begins their march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Talking with Joanne after crossing the bridge

Joanne Bland and Annie Pearl Avery –Sheros of the Movement

Live Oaks Cemetery – the historic white cemetery in Selma

A monument to the Confederacy

A monument to Bedford Forrest, a famous Confederate general and the founder of the KKK

SInging and talking with Annie Pearl Avery

Click to Play "Lay My Burden Down" at the First Baptist Church in Selma

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Walking over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I could feel my stomach tighten.  I still am not sure whether it was from nervousness or just the thought that we were reenacting one of the most important events in the Civil Rights Movement.  Whatever it was it, it was a feeling that I won't ever forget.
- Peter-Owen  

The bricks tread upon by millions.  The gentle arc of the bridge, that, if you think about it, is not gentle at all.  Cresting the apex of the bridge, dreading the thought of seeing the other side.  The stunning realization that even if I threw myself into the path of a truck, I could never experience the pain felt on Bloody Sunday.
- Nate  

Listening to the stories of Joanne Bland and Annie Pearl Avery was unbelievable.  The stories of Bloody Sunday was like a horror story.  Hearing screams in your head anytime you cross a bridge is like repeating a nightmare every night.  The words coming out of her mouth struck me and made me feel like I can make a change in the world.
- Phoebe  

Listening to stories in the wind.  When Joanne told us the stories, the wind spoke with her.  Walking the footprints of John Lewis, Hosea Williams and the marchers of Bloody Sunday with its story so strong and the wind rushing by.
- Gabe F.  

As we were walking on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I kept asking myself would I have been willing to die or be brutally beaten? My answer was no. I felt a pit of fear build in my stomach, but then I asked if the cause was just. When I examined it again, I realized that yes, it would have been worth it, to die for equality, for justice, to die for other people's hope. I just kept repeating that and wondering if another child on another day many years ago, had those same thoughts and if they came to the same conclusion that I did. I still felt fear, but I understood the motivation that allowed them and us to overcome our fear.
- Paige  

Serene
Mysterious
Spanish moss
Hanging in strips
Tickling the air
Changing the aura
Turning everything
Peaceful
Making depressing
Just beautiful.
- Katie

Click Play to hear the Deacon's Prayer from Second Missionary Baptist Church

In church, Reverend Darryl Moore spoke with a fierce agile voice that reminded me so much of Marcus Garvey. While the service was going on, I looked back in time and I discovered the pride, hope, and huge belief in God that kept the people moving, but the biggest part is that God is always at their side. –Gabriel F.

Church was amazing. Everything the pastor said about "bitter water" I had felt in myself, but that moment I could feel it in everyone else as well. The whole church swayed to the same woeful beat and I could feel each time one of us had been rocked by grief, kicked when we were down, but I also felt we had all gone through it together. That our darkest and loneliest moments were the times when we were actually the most united and supported. I wondered if this was how it felt to truly believe in God and never feel like you were going it alone. –Harper

The preacher, when he was up at the pulpit, yelling and sweating and singing and praising God seemed to be channelling some sort of higher power. It makes me wonder, yet again, if I am missing some sort of secret that all church going holy people seem to be in on. I'm realizing as the trip wares on how interconnected everything is:  religion, the Civil Rights Movement, and every other passionately driven part of history. The force behind it all seems to be spirit, God, church, and faith. –Casey

Out of all the things that we have scone this week, meeting Bob Mants was my favorite. Even just answering our questions, he was so inspirational, so amazing. He was, in my eyes, truly a living legend. –Wynona

Talking to Bob today is liking going back in time and living the Movement. Bob's words made the Movement seem so much more real to me. It was like he took us back to when he started to fight and he will keep on fighting forever. –Phoebe

I thought is was very inspiring how Emmett Till's death played such a huge role in Bob's life. He said,"It was Emmett Till that drove us all." –Cassidy

Alex practices his speech

Dressed for church

Reverend Darryl Moore of Second Missionary Baptist Church

The choir of Second Missionary Baptist Church

Elkanah hears the sermon of the Edmund Pettus Bridge

Lunch in Hayneville

The Interpretive Center at "Tent City"

Time with Bob Mants

Caleb recites his poem for Bob Mants

Maeve and Jackie listen hard to Bob Mants as he warns us of the danger of anger

Singing with Bob

Zeb, PO, and Casey grace us with a verse of Oh Wallace

Wynona, Paige and Harper take a verse of Oh Wallace

Elkanah and Ben take a verse

Harper read her poem for Bob Mants

Elkanah recites her poem for Bob Mants

Gabriel delivers his speech in Whitehall

Alex delivers his speech with clarity and passion

Dinner in Hayneville

Click Play to hear another song from Gee's Bend

Click Play to hear Reverend Pettway's picnic blessing

Meeting Rev. Pettway was amazing; he could turn a simple blessing of food into a rousing fervent speech. He was so proud of his church, the gym, and his community. He seemed to simply glow when talking about them.
- Gabriel

   
Meeting someone new – sticking your hand out, them refusing, and wrapping their arms around you – giving you a hug you’ll never forget.
- Sarah  

Today we met Mary Lee Bendolph at Gee’s Bend. The people of Gee’s Bend were holding onto their faith and nothing else. When their life is as hard as it is, there are not many things you can depend on. Faith is one of those few things.
- Colin

 
Laughing, singing, soaking in sun, dreams of warmth, laying still above the swiftly moving Alabama River muddy with age, hidden stories of segregation, each bank filled with luscious green trees and fields where children play.
- Maeve

 
Their futures are also the same… almost none of them will leave (Gee’s Bend). Most will stay and do the same exact thing as their parents, and their grandparents, and their great-grandparents. Most will just keep moving forward as one communal psyche, just trying to keep their heads above the Alabama River. Is this sad, to keep doing the same thing for generations, or does it show a contentedness that no one else has been able to find? A real happiness and love for family unparalleled by the hustle and bustle of millions of other lives?
- Harper

Click Play to hear Lean on Me by the Alabama River

Mary Lee Bendolph – A matriarch of Gee's Bend

Hugs for everyone

Essie – Mary Lee's daughter

Down by the Alabama River

Nora plans for a Gee's Bend CSA

Everyone plays

Singing with Mary Lee

Finn joins the Bendolph family

Fellowship and a picnic

Gee's Bend's first Ultimate Frisbee game

Pleasant and Stella Pettway

Casey and Paul get ready for Casey's speech

Young beautiful singers

Reverend Pettway

Singing like we mean it

Casey delivers her speech on the banks of the Alabama River

Maeve delivers her speech

Stella brings down a quilt she has been working on and gives us our first lesson in quilting

We say goodbye

Kristen Pettway plays for her church every Sunday

Home for dinner at Selma House