{"id":10973,"date":"2018-09-06T11:18:32","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:18:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/?p=10973"},"modified":"2018-09-06T11:37:07","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:37:07","slug":"traveling-with-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/2018\/09\/06\/traveling-with-purpose\/","title":{"rendered":"Traveling with Purpose"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ThisMPA students explore civil rights and social justice on \u201cThis Land is Your Land\u201d summer trip.<\/em><\/p>\n

Most summer road trips don\u2019t include Topeka, Kansas. But the city made the itinerary of \u201cThis Land is Your Land,\u201d a civil rights-focused trip organized by Mounds Park Academy history teachers Katie Murr and Mike Vergin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal was to visit as many major sites associated with the civil rights movement as we could,\u201d said Murr. \u201cWe wanted them to see places that are an important part of their history but they might fly over instead of visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, Murr and Vergin led 21 students on an unforgettable 12-day trip across 13 states. They traveled more than 3,500 miles, reaching as far south as Montgomery, Alabama and as far east as Atlanta, Georgia. While they focused on civil rights landmarks, they covered all aspects of history as they went. Each site sparked insightful conversations among the students, the teachers, parent chaperones, and bus driver Gary Schlotfeldt.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we visited these major historical sites, we had lots of good conversations, particularly around how change is achieved by people outside of the political realm,\u201d said Murr. \u201cWe also explored how many civil rights injustices continue today, but in different forms such as the mass incarceration of black men.\u201d<\/p>\n

Experiencing the Selma-to-Montgomery march<\/em><\/strong>
\nOne of the trip\u2019s most emotionally draining days started in Clanton, Ala. at a Holiday Inn Express. After breakfast, the group drove 45 miles to the Selma Interpretive Center, a U.S. National Park Service-run center with photos, films and a re-creation of the Selma-to-Montgomery march in 1965. A day earlier\u2014during a particularly long stretch of driving\u2014the students had watched the 2014 movie Selma, one of several historical dramas and documentaries they watched on the trip.<\/p>\n

The Selma Interpretive Center is adjacent to the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Pettus was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army, a U.S. Senator from Alabama, and a grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. (See NPR\u2019s The Racist History Behind the Iconic Selma Bridge<\/a><\/em>.) As the protesters did more than 50 years ago, the students and accompanying adults walked across the bridge, acknowledging and appreciating the symbolism that a landmark civil rights demonstration traversed a structure named for a man who embodied the injustice, intolerance and violence they were protesting.<\/p>\n

After learning about the bridge in U.S. History, and then watching Selma on the trip, \u201cWalking the same route as civil rights heroes was immensely powerful,\u201d said MPA senior Lindsay Baldwin. \u201cWe saw the landscape that they saw, and I could almost picture the mob of hostile white Americans that awaited them on the other side. Walking in the footsteps of iconic advocates was humbling and inspiring. All of the students left the bridge with a greater respect and appreciation for the strength and bravery of the marchers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exploring new and powerful account of racial injustice<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe group then headed to the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration<\/a>, which opened April 26, 2018. Created by the Equal Justice Initiative<\/a> (EJI), the Legacy Museum is the physical manifestation of the organization\u2019s extensive research into the history of racial injustice. It is built on the site of a former warehouse that imprisoned enslaved black people.<\/p>\n

According to its website, \u201cThe Legacy Museum<\/em> employs unique technology to dramatize the enslavement of African Americans, the evolution of racial terror lynchings, legalized racial segregation and racial hierarchy in America. Relying on rarely seen first-person accounts of the domestic slave trade, EJI\u2019s critically acclaimed research materials, videography, exhibits on lynching and recently composed content on segregation, this 11,000-square-foot museum explores the history of racial inequality and its relationship to a range of contemporary issues from mass incarceration to police violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

EJI Founder and Executive Director Bryan Stevenson<\/a> is \u201ca widely acclaimed public interest lawyer who has dedicated his career to helping the poor, the incarcerated, and the condemned.\u201d He is also the author of Just Mercy<\/a><\/em>, a memoir about his current work to provide a full defense for individuals who did not initially receive adequate legal representation when convicted of crimes and were sentenced to life in prison or death. At the start of the trip, one of the MPA students was reading the book; by the end, many had chosen to download the book or wait for the increasingly worn copy to land in their hands.<\/p>\n

Honoring victims of lynching at new memorial<\/em><\/strong>
\nThe group then headed to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice<\/a>, which is a 16-minute walk from the Legacy Museum and opened on the same day as the latter. According to its website, it \u201cis the nation\u2019s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.\u201d (See The New York Times<\/em> article, A Lynching Memorial Is Opening. The Country Has Never Seen Anything Like It<\/a><\/em>.)<\/p>\n

As a history teacher, Murr has seen countless memorials. But she found this one particularly powerful and amazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you approach the memorial, you see the steel columns from a distance,\u201d said Murr. \u201cBut when you\u2019re standing alongside them, you\u2019re compelled to read the names and dates of racial lynchings. Many are marked as \u2018unknown.\u2019 As you progress into the memorial, the columns rise above you, until you\u2019re at the center of the memorial, forcing you to look at your own responsibility\u2014the role you play\u2014in race relations today.\u201d<\/p>\n

That day, the group spent time in downtown Montgomery, stopping at the Civil Rights Memorial, the Alabama State Capitol, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, and the First White House of the Confederacy. After an intense and emotionally draining afternoon, the group headed to dinner at Peach Park in Clanton, Alabama. The family-owned restaurant started as a small, roadside fruit stand, and today is a must-see stop for Interstate 65 travelers. Peach Park spreads across seven acres and ended up being a perfect place for the group to recharge. Many of the students\u2014and adults\u2014enjoyed the restaurant\u2019s famous homemade peach ice cream, which they report is worth the hype.<\/p>\n

And this was just one day of the 12-day trip!<\/p>\n

Building the itinerary for \u2018This Land is Your Land\u2019<\/em><\/strong>
\nOver the course of her 14-year tenure at MPA, Murr has led all different types of student trips to locations across the country and globe. Given the current socio-political climate, Murr started thinking two years ago about a civil rights-focused trip. Turns out Vergin was considering the same idea. So the two MPA veteran teachers (Vergin has been teaching at MPA for 20 years) collaborated and mapped out the trip.<\/p>\n

Typically when teachers plan a school trip, they employ commercially available tours and resources. They decide where they want to go, identify a readily available itinerary, select a tour company, and go. But this wasn\u2019t the case with \u201cThis Land is Your Land.\u201d Murr and Vergin spent months building the itinerary. They needed to identify and book hotel rooms, make large-group reservations at restaurants, reserve tickets at key sites, and secure a bus and driver. (See below for the lists of historical and cultural sites.)<\/p>\n

Schlotfeldt was an unexpected benefit of their grassroots trip-planning effort. Murr said that he essentially joined the trip, engaging with the students and becoming part of the family. Schlotfeldt, who is 20+ years older than Murr and Vergin, offered another perspective and felt a sense of responsibility and purpose. After the trip, he called the school to share what an amazing experience it was for him and how incredible MPA students and faculty were.<\/p>\n

As Murr and Vergin were planning their trip, examples of civil rights travel and tourism were developing around the 50th anniversaries of key events such as the Selma march and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Their passion for social justice and history combined with the flexibility that MPA affords its teachers helped create a moving and memorable trip for all involved, from the students to the parents.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on a transformational experience<\/em><\/strong>
\n\u201cThe trip was a learning odyssey through the darkest and brightest parts of American history,\u201d said parent Kofi Bruce. \u201cWe saw the breadth of our American experience from Eisenhower\u2019s library and memorial that embodied the greatest generation of WWII and worked our way to some of the darkest times with the Legacy Museum, lynching memorial and Memphis motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. As I watched the students learning the historical context and current realities of the civil rights movement, I found myself remembering that as Americans, we don\u2019t need America to be perfect to love it perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce was impressed that so many students would give up two weeks of summer vacation for a full immersion into U.S. history, specifically civil rights history. He found it \u201cremarkable\u201d that MPA would facilitate a trip like this, calling it a \u201ctransformational experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Murr and Vergin, it\u2019s just what they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt MPA, we teach students to dream big and do right, and this trip aligns well with that concept,\u201d said Murr. \u201cThis idea of traveling for a larger purpose\u2014and not just for personal growth\u2014reflects how we\u2019re guiding students to examine their place in the world both now and in the future. We want students to see how their passions and interests can help improve and shape the broader world around them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the course of the trip, the group visited six presidential libraries. But the presidents and their actions faded away on this trip, Murr observed. Instead individuals deciding to make change and working together to achieve that change made the lasting impression.<\/p>\n

This Land is Your Land<\/em><\/strong>
\n13 states, 12 days, and 3599 miles<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

American Jazz Museum
\nNegro League Baseball Museum
\nBrown v. Board National Historic Site
\nKansas State Capitol
\nEquality House
\nDwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, Museum, and Home
\nMoney Museum – Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City
\nNational World War I Museum
\nHarry S. Truman National Historic Site
\nHarry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum
\nWalmart Museum
\nCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art
\nFort Smith National Historic Site
\nHot Springs National Park
\nLittle Rock Central High School National Historic Site
\nWilliam J. Clinton Presidential Library &amp; Museum
\nGraceland – The Home of Elvis Presley
\nNational Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel
\nSelma to Montgomery National Historic Trail
\nLegacy Museum – From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration
\nNational Memorial for Peace and Justice
\nBirmingham Civil Rights National Monument
\nFreedom Riders National Monument
\nStone Mountain Theme Park
\nMartin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park
\nJimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum
\nWorld of Coca-Cola
\nGeorgia Aquarium
\nRock City
\nAndrew Jackson\u2019s Hermitage
\nCahokia Mounds – UNESCO World Heritage Site
\nGateway Arch National Park
\nLincoln Tomb State Historic Site
\nLincoln Home National Historic Site
\nAbraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MPA students explore civil rights and social justice on \u201cThis Land is Your Land\u201d summer trip. Most summer road trips don\u2019t include Topeka, Kansas. But the city made the itinerary of \u201cThis Land is Your Land,\u201d a civil rights-focused trip organized by Mounds Park Academy history teachers Katie Murr and Mike Vergin. \u201cOur goal was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,8,28,24,29,12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-admission","category-all-school","category-current-families","category-featured-posts","category-homepage","category-middle-school","category-upper-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10973"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10978,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10973\/revisions\/10978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.moundsparkacademy.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}