Experiences

Today we started out trip by going to Selma, Alabama. In this place, we met Joanne Bland who was a life-long activist. Mrs. Joanne became our funny and enthusiastic tour guide for the day in Selma. She let us keep stones that were fragments of the place where the teachers wanted to get Ms. Rosa Parks freed. While the bus was moving, she introduced the old houses that were historic and also sharing her own opinions about the houses we passes by. Mrs. Joanne brought us to the cemetery to recognize the black soldiers who offered their lives for the black, colored people and lastly, she let us experience the march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where a lot of black people marched from Selma to Montgomery. Furthermore, we ate lunch at the Southern Poverty Law Center where the food was delicious and there, we also got to ask questions Mrs. Joanne and Mr. Edmund Pettus Bridge at the same time sharing their experiences in the civil rights movement. Ms. Joanne is one of my inspiration for saying "be you and don't be afraid of being different."
After saying goodbye to Ms. Joanne, we drove to Montgomery, Alabama and visited the Civil Rights Capitol. The best experience there was the time I entered my name into the great wall. The museum was excellent from the outside into the inside. I learned that the architect of the civil rights memorial design where 40 names of black people are remembered was created by Maya Lin, a student from Yale University. After that, we walked to see Dr. MLK's Church and then to the greyhound bus station. While walking to the station, we saw the signs that informs us about Ms. Rosa Parks and what she did that sparked the bus boycott. 
Lastly, we went to the Equal Justice Initiative and discussed about the prosecution and the imprisonment of young colored people.

Samantha Santillan
City College