We left for Beaver Falls after an overnight stay at the Chapel Valley Estate bed and breakfast in New Oldfield. The Bus left at 6.00am with a group of nearly 30 persons and headed out to Greensboro, South Carolina. Dr. Todd Allen of Geneva College has been leading this group for 10 years (http://www.geneva.edu/object/faculty_todd_allen). The nearly eight hour journey was punctuated by a documentary on the music of the Civil Rights movement showcasing songs like “wade in the water,” “which side are you on,” and “we shall overcome.” Another documentary charted the course of the civil rights sit-ins at the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University at Greensboro. Both videos revealed the broad popular base of the Civil Rights movement and how spontaneous acts of everyday resistance triggered wider movements across the country. The sit-ins by 4 North Carolina A&T University’s freshmen in 1960 at Woolworth’s store broke the practice of segregation at food establishments and sparked off similar protests across the south. Today that Woolworth’s store is the site of the recently built International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro (http://www.sitinmovement.org/). It has a fascinating collection of artifacts representing various aspects of the African American experience under segregation, the struggle for civil rights, and recognition of civil rights movements around the world. It was sobering to get a brief glimpse into the struggles of various racial groups in the United States, the contradictions between the ideals and the lived realities of everyday life for African Americans, Native Americans, and women.
Perhaps, traveling on a civil rights tour is in many ways a pilgrimage—to visit the past of the United States, discern it promise, its brokenness, and hopes for the future. As the 21st century advances and the living record embodied in the participants of the Civil Rights movement dwindle in number all we will have left are memories enshrined in our minds, in artifacts, and images. I suppose, that is what makes a popular movements like the Civil Rights so important and of continual relevance to human beings long after the participants have passed on. Perhaps it will become part of an unfolding global story of human struggle, endeavor, sacrifice, faith in action, and hope for a better future.
Statue at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University commemorating "The Greensboro 4" who sparked off sit ins across the south.
The Woolworths in Greensboro, now the site for the International Civil Rights Center & Museum