Four Weeks to Selma! We need to be ready to take this trip.
This is not a sight seeing voyage, although you will see sights. We aren’t going for the food, although I do believe that you’ll all get Southern Fried fat in the process. And we aren’t going for the weather, although we should, if Apollo has any say in the matter, find it warm and sunny. We are going to Selma, Alabama for the Bridge Crossing Jubilee because this is 
a historic celebration of a very significant time in American history. If you do not fully understand the events of the day – back in 1955 in Montgomery, or 1963 in Birmingham, or March of 1965 in Selma, Alabama, then the experience loses its meaning. Then its just two days out of school and a trip down south for the helluva it.
So, we need to prepare! I have books…lots of copies of Let the Trumpet Sound by Stephen B. Oates. A story of the life of Martin Luther King Jr., it’s a wonderful read and will supplement the trip quite well. The Eyes on the Prize video series is the Bible when it comes to the Civil Rights Movement. I have the series (which you may borrow), and links here to on-line sometimes quality – sometimes not you tube version, for your viewing pleasure. If you did nothing more than sit down with your folks or your friends and watch these movies together you would educate yourself tremendously on the movement. Things would certainly be more focused.
Finally – we will have two meetings as a group. Each will run an hour afterschool or at night – your call. And these concentrate solely on the events of Selma, Alabama. I will have some reading for you to do…and will present a look at the events in Selma of 1965. This will certainly enrich your trip…but you can do a whole lot more by digging in to all the other resources on your own.
So…I need to know what your schedules are, when you want to meet, if you’d like a book, and provide the links to other sources. Remember – this trip doesn’t have an opportunity to walk you back into history – unless you first are awake to the era in which we walk. You can do that through study. So get moving.
Let me know your thoughts. And as for the final bill…I’m still figuring it. But it should be, at least $100 less than previously stated. Talk to you soon.
