Today was a special treat for the teens! They really got to see how children (their age)participated in the Civil Rights Movement! While we were at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute (which is one of the best museums i have ever been to) we recieved a special treat. Our tour guides were high school students! Let me tell you...these teens were sharp! 15 years old and they had memorized dates, names, locations! IT WAS AMAZING!! I couldn't stop telling them how proud I was of them! I also told them that they were welcome at the YMCA in Charlotte anytime! When I left, the young lady that's in charge of the tour guide program told me that there were already making plans to come visit! :) Anyway....here are the pics from Day 4! Hope you enjoy!
Teens at the Birmingham YMCA Youth Center! (i think i might have shed a tear when I walked in this place! A program director's dream facility! LOL!)
Teens at the 16th Street Baptist Church where the 4 little girls were killed.
This is one of my favorite shots. This is a statue in Kelly Ingram Park. The statue says "I Ain't Afraid of Your Jail". I told the teens I wanted to take a picture of them in front of the statue, but I only wanted them to get in the picture if they believed the message and could do what the children before them had done. As you can see...all of them are in the picture!
Teens on the 16th Street Baptist Church steps.We are off to Selma tomorrow! Day 5 here we come!
Wish You Were Here! XOXO,
Ms. Jessica
This is really a remarkable opportunity!! We are called to find our ancestors and to "personally" understand the lives ... to put flesh on their bones and make them live again, and to feel that somehow they know and approve. To me, your tour is not just a cold gathering of facts or seeing artifacts, but instead, breathing life into all of those who have gone before you. They would be very proud of you guys.
ReplyDeleteBy seeing and understanding their plight, you somehow find yourselves. It goes beyond just documenting the facts. It goes to who we are. It goes to respecting their hardship and losses, as well as their unwillingness to give in or give up. It goes to understanding that we must honor and remember them with the life that we live. And so we do!
I look forward to how the students respond to today's trip to Selma. They experienced history up close and personal...in ways that even I, their tour director, could not have imagined. It is timely that your comment spoke to the realities that they are living.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for taking the time to read!