Proposal Itinerary

Morgan Park Academy

On the Road to Freedom Understanding the Civil Rights Movement February 16 - 23, 2020

February 16: Sunday. Jackson. D.

Arrive in Jackson – the group will be met and taken to the Staybridge Suites hotel. ​ ​

Meet in the hotel lobby to drive to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, which opened in December 2017. This state-funded museum provides an honest and painful account of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi through a series of galleries packed floor to ceiling with photographs, texts and recordings. There are eight galleries that branch off from a central rotunda that brings daylight into the museum. Inside the rotunda, an illuminated sculpture pulses and glows every 30 minutes (reminding you how quickly time passes at the museum) and gospel songs play. The idea is to begin and move, always staying left, from one gallery to the next one. The museum exhibits begins with the back-story to the civil rights period – the European slave trade. From there the museum timeline moves through the Civil War, Reconstruction and the birth of Jim Crow, and then moves to post World War II with a room focusing entirely on Emmett Till. Woven through the galleries is a parallel record of resistance from activists like Medgar Evers.

Return to the hotel and enjoy a welcome dinner.

February 17: Monday. Jackson. B,L,D.

Meet in the lobby to board the bus for a 20-minute drive to the Medgar Evers Home Museum, on ​ ​ Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson. Medgar Evers, the field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, was assassinated in the driveway of his Jackson home in 1963. That home was given to Tougaloo College and is now a museum dedicated to Evers' life and the history of the civil rights movement. The group will meet with Minnie White Watson, the curator. ​ ​ On January 5, 2017 the Evers home was declared as one of 24 local historic properties by the National Park Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Drive to Malaco Records, an American independent record label based in Jackson, that has been the ​ ​ home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. The first big hit on the Malaco label was Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue,” in ​ 1976, but it was the unexpected success of Z.Z. Hill’s LP Down Home in 1982-83 that launched Malaco ​ ​ on a trajectory to become the dominant label in its field. It defines the state of contemporary southern ​ rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel, with more than 30 years of making black music for black people, focusing on local artists and songwriters. We will be meeting with co-founder Gerald “Wolf” ​ Stephenson for a tour of the record company. ​ Drive past the former Greyhound Bus station. This prominent site from the 1961 Freedom Rides against ​ ​ segregation has been lovingly renovated by architect Robert Parker Adams whose architectural firm occupies the art deco structure today. The bus will drop the group off at Farish Street which was the ​ ​ thriving center of African-American life in Jackson during the Jim Crow era. In recent years the street has ​ ​ fared poorly with boarded up buildings and vacant lots and a few lone businesses struggling to survive. Pass by the Collins Funeral Home where on June 15, 1963, a throng of 4,000 mourners marched from the ​ ​ Masonic Temple to the Collins Funeral Home where Medgar Evers’ body was prepared for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

We will be met here by local business owner Daniel Dillon who is working to try and revitalize the area. ​ ​ In 2009 he opened Frank Jones Corner, the only restaurant and live music venue on a nearly empty street. In 1923, the building was a gas station called Frank Jones Corner, named after a Farish Street businessman. We will enjoy dinner and music here this evening.

Stop by the Big Apple Inn and meet with owner Geno Lee for an exclusive opening to sample a “pig ​ ​ ​ ​ ear” sandwich or a smoked sausage sandwich. Geno Lee is the fourth-generation owner of the Big Apple Inn. His great-grandfather, Juan “Big John” Mora, born in Mexico City, arrived in Jackson in the 1930s. He began peddling hot tamales on street corners, and by 1939 he had earned enough money to buy a storefront on Farish Street, calling his new venture the Big Apple Inn, named after his favorite dance, the Big Apple. Today, the Big Apple Inn is not only known for its smokes and ears, but also for its service to ​ ​ the community.

1:00 pm. Enjoy lunch at Johnny T’s Bistro and Blues where we will be joined by Dr. Robert Luckett, ​ ​ ​ ​ Director of the Margaret Walker Center and an Associate Professor of the Department of History at ​ ​ Jackson State University. As a Civil Rights historian, Dr. Luckett’s expertise is on the modern Civil ​ Rights Movement and the African-American experience. As director of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, Dr. Luckett has become an expert on Walker’s life and her experiences, especially as they related to the Black Arts Movement of the 20th century.

After lunch drive a short distance to the Mississippi Food Network to meet with Chief Executive Officer, ​ ​ ​ ​ Dr. Charles Beady Jr. or Director of Development, Marilyn Blackledge. The Mississippi Food ​ ​ ​ Network aims to eliminate poverty-related hunger in Mississippi by distributing donated and purchased food and grocery products to a network of member churches and nonprofit organizations. The Mississippi Food Network distributes more than 1.5 million pounds of food and feeds more than 150,000 every month — or a total of 1.8 million people per year.

We will arrange a service opportunity for the students here.

Depart the hotel to enjoy dinner

February 18: Tuesday. Little Rock. B,L,D. ​

Depart Jackson this morning and head north driving through the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta.

Arrive at the B.B King Museum. From the cotton fields, street corners and juke joints of the Mississippi ​ ​ Delta came the blues. Considered by many to be the only truly indigenous American music, this form has influenced musicians worldwide and is deeply rooted in Delta soil. So too is the man who helped spread the blues as its foremost ambassador, Riley B.B. King. In 2008, the Museum opened to rave reviews, delivering as an unparalleled experience. The exhibits include thousands of rare artifacts, award-winning films, computer interactives, and conveys an incredible story of courage and the strength of the human spirit.

Depart the museum and drive to Greenwood and the Museum of the Mississippi Delta. ​ ​ ​ ​

Arrive at the museum and meet with Sylvester and Mary Hoover, owners of the Hoover’s Store where ​ ​ Mary Hoover will prepare barbeque ribs for the group and, of course, her famous butter-roll, similar to a cobbler but without the fruit! Mary is a fabulous cook, owned a popular soul-food restaurant in the ​ historically black Baptist Town neighborhood for nearly 30 years, and was involved in preparing the ​ spreads for the food scenes in the movie, The Help. ​ ​

We will invite other students to join the group at lunch.

The Museum of the Mississippi Delta, founded in 1969, is at the crossroads of Delta history and art. Their extensive collection includes artifacts related to agriculture, Native America, regional military history and includes one of the Delta's most extensive collections of regional art.

After lunch drive a short distance to Baptist Town which was established in the 1800s in tandem with the ​ ​ growth of the local cotton industry. Known for its strong sense of community, Baptist Town rests between the McKinney Chapel M.B. Church and a former cotton compress building. In blues lore, Baptist Town is best known through the reminiscences of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who identified it as the final residence of Robert Johnson, who died here in 1938.

Visit the small Back in the Day Museum which Sylvester has created. This community museum ​ ​ explores the African-American culture in the Delta.

Sylvester will accompany the group on a 20-minute drive to Money where the first marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail was placed at the remains of the Bryant’s Grocery, the site associated with ​ ​ the murder of black teenager Emmett Till. The store is where Till is said to have wolf-whistled at white ​ ​ shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant in August 1955. The 14-year-old was kidnapped, tortured and killed a few days later in a crime that helped set the civil rights movement in motion. It has often been called “ground zero" of the civil rights movement. Carolyn Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, stood trial on murder charges weeks later. After 67 minutes of deliberations, the all-white jury found the men innocent. In January 2017, Mrs. Bryant recanted her account of Emmett Till being “menacing and sexually crude” toward her.

Make a stop in Sumner at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center which exists to tell the story of the ​ ​ Emmett Till tragedy and point a way towards racial healing. Specifically, the center uses arts and storytelling to help process past pain. Meet with Benjamin Saulsberry and learn of the apology ​ ​ resolution written by the community of Sumner and issued from the steps of the courthouse in which Emmett Till's murderers were acquitted. After a decade of work from the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, they now invite you to join in on a call to action in your own community, recognizing a need to address racial injustices across America.

Enjoy an early dinner at Sumner Grille.

Continue on to Little Rock, a drive of about three hours.

Arrive in Little Rock and check into the SpringHill Suites by Marriott ​

February 19 Wednesday. Memphis. B,L,D.

Depart the hotel and drive to Little Rock Central High School, a national emblem of the often violent ​ ​ struggle over school desegregation. Tour the school and then, walk a short distance to the Visitor Center, ​ ​ which opened in September, 2007 coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the 1957 desegregation crisis. The center features 3,000-square-feet of permanent exhibits covering the 1957 events that took place at Central High School and its role, along with the Little Rock Nine, in the greater civil rights movements in the U.S.

We have arranged a very special meeting with one of the Little Rock nine, Elizabeth Eckford. Ms. ​ ​ Eckford is the student portrayed in the iconic photo of a young African-American girl walking to school with her eyes shielded by sunglasses. While being surrounded by an angry crowd of white people, the photo captures the face of a girl, visibly hardened with anger, passionately shouting towards young Eckford. There will be a chance to talk to Ms. Eckford about her experiences.

From here drive to the William J. Clinton Presidential Center housed in a gleaming modern space ​ ​ ​ overlooking the Arkansas River, designed by award-winning architect James Polshek. The Center supports the Clinton Library, the Foundation, and the School of Public Service. It also features a mock Oval Office as it looked during his administration. Meet with a docent Ann Kamps for a tour of the ​ ​ Clinton Presidential Center. Ms. Kamps who grew up in Alabama, worked for Bill Clinton for nine years during his time as governor, and did a stint as Hillary Rodham Clinton's top aide.

Enjoy lunch at 42 Bar and Table, located at the Clinton Presidential Center.

After lunch walk to the Anne Frank exhibit right outside the center. The exhibit features a sapling from the tree outside the building where Frank and her family hid from the Nazis during World War II. When President Clinton opened the exhibit he hoped that the tree would teach visitors to focus on their similarities, not the divisions that have led to tragedies.

Drive about two hours to Memphis.

Upon arrival in Memphis check into the La Quinta by Wyndham ​

Dinner this evening at Rendezvous for a traditional BBQ Dinner.

February 20: Thursday. Memphis. B,L.

Depart directly from breakfast to the Lorraine Motel, now the home of the National Civil Rights ​ Museum. Walter and Loree Bailey bought the motel in 1945. Under the Baileys’ ownership, it became a ​ modest safe haven for black travelers and visitors who were welcomed with home-cooked meals, and offered an upscale environment. Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at the motel numerous times and came again in the spring of 1968 to support a strike by sanitation workers. On April 4, 1968, he stepped out of Room 306 to talk with friends in the parking lot below. As King turned to walk back into his room, a bullet struck him in the neck, taking his life instantly.

The museum artifacts, films, oral histories, and interactive media guide visitors through five centuries of history, from slave resistance to the numerous protests of the American civil-rights movement. A large white wreath hangs on the balcony outside Room 306 and it is possible to look into the well-preserved room to imagine what it looked like on that tragic day. Explore the museum independently.

Across the street is the Legacy Building (the boarding house from where the assassin's shot was allegedly fired), which includes exhibits related to the investigation of the MLK assassination, the case against James Earl Ray, and ensuing conspiracy theories.

Enjoy lunch at the world famous Gus’s Fried Chicken. ​ ​

End the day with a visit to the Slave Haven Underground Railway House where dark cellars, hidden ​ ​ passageways and trap doors were used by runaway slaves attempting to flee north to freedom. Built by ​ ​ slave sympathizer and German immigrant Jacob Burkle, this modest home tells the story of the Memphis slave trade and the Underground Railroad.

Dinner this evening at Four Points. ​ ​

February 21: Friday. Montgomery. B,L.

Depart the hotel for a three and a half hour drive to Birmingham.

th Upon arrival in Birmingham meet with. Rev. Carolyn McKinstry at the 16 ​ Baptist Street Church ​ ​ ​ ​

th At age fourteen, Carolyn was inside the 16 ​ Street Baptist Church when a bomb killed four young girls as ​ they prepared to sing in their choir on September 15, 1963. More than 8,000 mourners, including 800 clergymen of both races, attended the funeral. No city officials attended. Visit the basement area of the th 16 ​ Street Baptist Church (please note the main part of the church is currently undergoing major ​ renovation work and is not open). View the video “Angels of Change”.

Across the Street is the historic Kelly Ingram Park, site of civil rights rallies, demonstrations and ​ ​ confrontations in the 1960s. Historic footage of police-attack dogs and high-powered fire hoses remain indelibly imprinted on the memories of those who saw the images on televisions and in newspapers around the world in the 1960s. Sculptures throughout the park are vivid depictions of police dog and fire hose assaults on demonstrators, many of them children.

Accompanied by Rev. McKinstry learn about the Children’s March and the story of how the young ​ ​ people of Birmingham braved arrest, fire hoses, and police dogs in 1963 and brought segregation to its knees. The spring of 1963, Birmingham, Alabama, was the “do-or-die” battleground for the Civil Rights Movement. Heavy intimidation by Birmingham authorities left the Movement floundering. Using word-of-mouth under a veil of secrecy, more than 4,000 African American schoolchildren organized to desert classrooms at exactly 11 a.m. on “D-Day,” May 2, 1963, touching off a week of mass demonstrations and rioting that shocked the nation. Police tried to stop them. Yet, the children prevailed.

Spend lunch at Delta Blues Hot Tamales where we have invited Carolyn McKinstry to join us for lunch.

Drive about 2 hours to Selma. Stop outside of the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, ​ ​ the site of Malcolm X’s address in support of voting rights, Dr. King’s eulogy for Jimmie Lee Jackson, and Jackson’s funeral. Three marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama began from this church, which also served as the temporary headquarters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Visit the Selma Interpretive Center and meet with Annie Pearl Avery. Annie Pearl joined the Student ​ ​ ​ ​ Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at age sixteen and whose civil rights work spans decades. When Freedom Riders were mobbed in Birmingham in May 1961, she went to the bus station to see what was happening and perhaps help or at least meet the riders. She could not get through police barricades, but she met SNCC organizer Wilson Brown who invited her to attend a SNCC conference in Georgia. Eventually she became SNCC’s project director for the voter registration effort in Hale County, Alabama. Annie Pearl will discuss with us her experience in the civil rights movement, as well as her experience walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge during Bloody Sunday in 1965.

Walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, beginning on March 21, 1965, marchers walked for five ​ ​ days to Montgomery camping during the night in the fields of farmers sympathetic to their cause.

The group will drive the 54 miles between Selma and Montgomery and follow the marchers’ route that helped to change American history. The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail commemorates the events, people, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama.

Arrive in Montgomery and check into the newly opened SpringHill Suites by Marriott ​

Dinner this evening at a local restaurant

February 22: Saturday. Montgomery. B,L,D.

Depart the hotel for a visit to the Dexter Parsonage Museum, the home of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King ​ ​ which was bombed on January 30, 1956. It was on that day that Dr. King made the personal commitment to non-violence.

Continue on to the newly open Legacy Museum, situated on a site where enslaved people were once ​ ​ ​ warehoused, a block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America. The Legacy Museum, created by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), aims to tell the history of racial inequality and economic injustice in the United States. For more than a decade, EJI has been conducting extensive research into the history of racial injustice and the narratives that have sustained injustice across generations. The new museum is the physical manifestation of that research. The museum employs unique technology to dramatize the enslavement of African Americans, the evolution of racial terror lynchings, legalized racial segregation and racial hierarchy in America, exploring the history of racial inequality and its relationship to a range of contemporary issues from mass incarceration to police violence.

Enjoy lunch at a local restaurant.

Continue on for a briefing by staff members of the Equal Justice Initiative. The briefing will take place ​ ​ ​ ​ in the new Visitor Center which is located across the street from the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

End the afternoon at the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice. ​

The memorial, created by the Equal Justice Initiative, is the nation’s 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. The Memorial for Peace and Justice was conceived with the hope of creating a sober, meaningful site where people can gather and reflect on America’s history of racial inequality.

Farewell dinner

February 23: Sunday. Depart B.

Drive to Atlanta for a non-stop flight back to Chicago

35-39 paying students: $2,800 40-45 paying students: $2,700

Includes 1. Airfare from Chicago to Jackson, returning from Atlanta to Chicago including all taxes 2. Accommodation as listed in the itinerary based on triple occupancy (in two queen beds and a sofa ​ ​ bed) 3. Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily with lemonade or iced-tea 4. Bottled water on the bus 5. Sightseeing and excursions as listed with all entrances as listed included 6. Transportation in a deluxe 51-seater motor-coach with air-conditioning 7. Services of a Nation selected educator such as Andre Robert Lee 8. Services of a Distant Horizons tour manager to assist with trip logistics 9. Based on a group size of 35 students, we have included 3 complimentary spaces (land and air) in a twin room. At 45 students we can provide 4 complimentary spaces 10. Copy of Turning 15: On the Road to Freedom (Lynda Blackmon Lowery) ​ ​ ​ 11. A Nation T--shirt commemorating Obama’s inauguration and displaying important figures in African American History

Not Included 1. Gratuities to bus driver and tour manager 2. Luggage charges 3. Personal insurance for health, baggage, and trip cancellation 4. Items of a purely personal nature 5. Any items not listed