I learned about the Civil War in China and learned about Civil Rights in US History, I thought I already knew the most of the stuff during this Interterm and it should be a relaxing trip. But after the first day, I changed my mind.
The first day we started in Atlanta, today’s question is “What lead MLK to out for March and lead him to come back?” we visited MLK’s birthplace and the church his father and him preach for, also, the MLK National Historical Park. I learned that he has visited North to learn more Christianity and start knew Gandhi’s idea that influence for a lifetime. The most impress part of today is his wife, Coretta Scott King. She also is a peacemaker, she helps the Civil Rights movement especially after MLK dead, this reminds me that “Every successful man’s back have a successful woman.” The answer for today is his job paster lead him to go out, and because he has been going March for a long time and Atlanta for him is home, he needs rest that leads him to come back.
The second day we went to Birmingham, also, called “Bombingham”. The question is ” What lead people to follow MLK or what gives them the courage to do this March?” We went to 16th Street Baptist Church where 3 girls been killed and went to the park where the children were been hurt by the policemen, the dog, the fire hydrant. When we at that park, we heard a little young boy asked his father “Dad, I thought the policemen protect people, why he hurt this boy?” His dad didn’t answer, we didn’t answer. The wind like the knife hurt our body also hurt our heart because that is the truth. In the evening, we went to Montgomery and we have a working tour around the town. When we stand on the Courthouse and read MLK’s speech at the same place, I look at the street imaging 54 years ago people walk 54-miles to the Courthouse just for their rights to vote, I think I knew the answer. Is the power of love, the love of people themselves. Black people, white people, young people, old people, they all come from church and end the march at church, I think the power that led those people is the love of God and the love of the Christians.
The third day we are at Montgomery, the question is “In what way does the Lynching still exist in the US?” visit The National Memorial for Peace and Justice museum, in the museum, there has 805 hanging steel rectangles and represent 4400 lynchings of black people in the United States between 1877 and 1950. Looking at the hanging steel rectangles you can see most of the name is UNKNOWN, I would like to recommend the sentence from this museum, “Lynching in America were not isolated hate crimes committed by rogue vigilantes. Lynching was targeted by racial violence perpetrated to uphold an unjust social order. Lynching was terrorism. At this memorial, we remember the thousands killed, the generations of black people terrorized, and the legacy of suffering and injustice that haunts us still.” In the evening, we went to the Mennonite central committee in Mississippi state, the hoster is an amazing family they have been moved from Elkhart to Macon Mississippi, they been through a very hard time when their parents adopt few Indian children, few black children, and white children, he said that was when he was 20 years old in 1965, their family has been get called from KKK that their kids will die tonight, but the good thing is nothing happened that night. And still, when he grows up, he also adopts two black children in 1980 and things not been change so well in their town, even when they go to judge to ask this adoption, the judge said he will never sign this paper because he should never adopt black kids, but when the baby was crying and they take him to change diaper, the judge sign that paper and left, after change diaper and come back they see the paper was signed and the assistant said just take it before the judge come back and angry for your guys. He shared his story and also we listen to the children he is adopted, how he is a black person living in Mississippi and what is his feeling. The answer for today is I think the lynching still exists in the US in multiple ways, like the unjust of the judge, black people have a higher chance to get executed than white people. For example Anthony Ray Hinton, a man from Alabama who was wrongly convicted of the 1985 murders of two fast food restaurant managers in Birmingham, sentenced to death, and held on the state’s death row for 28 years.
The fourth day we went to Philadelphia, in the morning we watched the movie “Mississippi Burning” and afternoon we visited the same place where the thing happened in the movie. And we went to the place three young guys been killed, people use to set a monument for those guys, but people down the street keep knock it down which surprise me how people can still believe those “KKK” ideas. In the evening we have our last group meeting, we share our ideas and talking this whole trip, by the end, Brent uses a question to end it, “For us be a student or be a person how should we treat this think we this happen in our neighbor, in our school, in our society?”
For me this is not the end, it is a start. It is not the end of today because I can’t answer this question, It is not the end of this trip because I will take this question to my normal life, it is not the end of KKK because there is a camera on the door where they use to meet at. It is not the end of the Civil Rights because of the Confederate flag still flies on the sky. It is not the end of the story and to become history because this problem still exists.
By: Xudong Sun