Day 3: Monday, June 15 (by Kevin Villegas)

On this third day of our tour, I find myself sorting through a lot of thoughts and emotions. We’re now in Montgomery, Ala., and I finally have a good chunk of down time to process it all a bit more.

After having watched several films documenting the civil rights movement, reading articles on specific events and people, visiting museums and landmarks, listening to songs and sermons from that era, and hearing first-hand accounts of what happened from the very people that were leaders during that period, I am increasingly amazed at the resolve and unity that existed among so many African Americans and their allies during such challenging and uncertain times.

The civil rights movement wasn’t that long ago. The fact that our group is spending quality time in the presence of individuals who directly organized and participated in events like the Montgomery bus boycott and the march on Washington, who were beaten and jailed for standing up to the powers, who had their homes and churches bombed by their oppressors, and who lost loved ones all for the hope of equality and justice is extraordinary. I am so very grateful for what I am learning.

To be sure, I’m also grateful for those who were courageous enough to take a stand against the gross injustices of their day. However, this same gratitude leaves me with a sense of wanting. I want for another movement—a movement that will be just as united and steadfast in its resolve for justice and equality for the people of today. There is still so much inequality in our world. Even here, in Montgomery, as we drove around you can sense it. There is still segregation in our country. It’s not a segregation that’s mandated by unjust laws and upheld by instilling fear through explicit violence, but one that’s imparted and accepted through the subtle forces of hegemony.

For me, I feel as if the civil rights movement of the ’50s and ’60s did a great deal to shape and change laws in this country, and to empower African Americans to make greater social progress, but I also think the movement ended too soon. And so I wonder how much more progress would’ve been realized had leaders like Dr. King and the Kennedys not been assassinated. I wonder who is going to take up the mantle and carry it forward. Must we sit idly and wait for a shocking event—a modern-day Emmet Till or 16th Street Baptist Church bombing—to rouse our collective conscience? Where is the leadership we so desperately need?

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