Experiential Learning
Civil Rights Trip to Tennessee and Alabama
April 2026
Students boarded a bus at 5:00am to begin our exciting adventure to Tennessee and Alabama. Believing that it is far more effective for students to experience history where it took place rather than reading about it in a book, we traveled to Memphis, Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery for a jam-packed 4 day trip.
As you can see from the images and reflections from students below, this was an unforgettable experience that will continue to shape their views and deepen their understanding of both our past and our present.
“I loved walking through the Legacy Museum. The moment where you walk in to the heads on the rocky ground and the water really moved me and gave me a deeper insight into the history that wasn’t just from a textbook. I also loved the Lorraine Motel and putting myself in as much of the shoes as I could have in MLKs room before he got shot. Something that made such a huge impact ion me during our trip was being able to physically step into a world that I had only read about and watched videos of. Rather than feeling like an “outsider” memorizing information, I got the opportunity to genuinely learn the stories of so many people and get insight into perspectives I otherwise would not be able to think about if my learning had stayed solely in the classroom.”
- Analise
At the Legacy Museum in downtown Montgomery, developed by the Equal Justice Initiative, sculptures by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo are dedicated to the memory of the victims of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. “Nkyinkyim: Dirge Across the Atlantic” (left side of the room), 2020; “Nkyinkyim: Melancholic Lullabies” (right side of the room), 2021.Credit...Equal Justice Initiative/Human Pictures
Two of our students, Abbie and Mariko, crafted this amazing documentary about the trip.
"I appreciated how the Legacy Museum focused a lot on mass incarceration, as the other museums, while also incredible in their own right, didn’t focus that much on issues affecting us in the current day, other than mentions of BLM from time to time. And as a whole, I’ve felt that civil rights education in school (at least from my experience, and barring IGSS) neglects everything after the 60s, so it felt good to see these issues in a school context."- Nolan
“The Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham had a big impact on me because we could step outside and immediately be surrounded by structures and places that had a direct tie to civil rights and were the sight of not only a great injustice but also hope and perseverance. That was very powerful to me.”
- Lola
“I really enjoyed all of the personal stories in the museums, especially with photos. I feel like understood the persons experience better. Another thing was the audio that was used created really emotional and powerful experience. I vividly remember the rooms in the first museum that used different songs like we shall overcome. The music brings so much power and unity to the movement and allowed so many people to have the courage to overcome such hardships. Similarly the holograms and other video telling peoples personal experience made everything seem so much more human and not just something that happened in the past.”
- Amalia