I can hardly believe this day has come. I have looked forward to the “Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights Bus Tour” since the day I heard that such a tour existed and was invited to be a part of it. I feel so incredibly fortunate to learn and take part in this journey. It is only day one of the tour and already, there is so much to assimilate. Our leader, Dr. Todd Allen has put together an amazing itinerary.
Today we left at 6 a.m. from Beaver Falls, Pa, just outside of Pittsburgh on a tour bus. My fellow tour-mates are from many different walks of life, varying races and ethnicities and from a number of different states. I am excited to get to know them.
The journey really started for me yesterday, Friday. My 11 year old daughter gave me the book “Leon’s story” to read. It is a true story about the African-American son of sharecroppers who experienced segregation, who walked to school while the white children took the bus, was spat upon, called names, and regularly beaten by white children. He lost his father to a group of drunk, white, boys who hit his father with their car and then ran him over multiple times to ensure that he was dead. Leon’s father did nothing to these boys, these boys were taught that African-American people did not feel. They preyed upon African-Americans for sport. The boys were never prosecuted. Leon’s story is a quick-read that gives readers the opportunity to enter into the struggles and the fear that African-American people faced on a daily basis as they navigated their lives in the South.
Our first official stop was in Greensboro, NC where today we had the opportunity to see North Carolina A and T. This university is where 4 first year students planned, in their door room, the sit- in at the lunch counter at the downtown Greensboro F. W. Woolworth on February 1, 1960. On the campus, there is a statue of these incredibly courageous young men who risked their lives to challenge segregation and started the sit-in movement in the South. We then visited the International Civil Rights Center and Museum(www.sitinmovement.org). This museum is on the actual site of F.W. Woolworth with original lunch counter still in place.
As we travel, I continue to think about the 4 African-American girls who died from a KKK bomb, the young African-American man who only either whistled at or said “Bye Baby” to a white young woman and was beaten to death by angry white people, the African-American children who were sprayed with a fire hose so powerful that it could tear bark off of a tree.
One of my fellow travelers, told me how difficult it is to view/experience this part of history. She told me “As an African-American woman who lived through this, it is just so hard…even now to see all of this.” My only response was “I can’t even begin to imagine how you must feel.”