A Transformative Week

Written by John Bloom, a participant in the fourth annual Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey.

This was such a transformative week, seeing civil rights history come alive. To me, the day that stands out the most was our day in Selma, although it was typical of encounters that we had throughout the week. There, Sam Walker of the National Voting Rights Museum gave us a run-down of the events that led to the Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights in Alabama, an event that was one of the greatest triumphs of the civil rights movement, and which helped to spark movements throughout the nation.

The stories we heard were local ones: middle school kids running out of school early to join in protests in front of the Dallas County Courthouse; driving by the auto dealership of the man who was the primary suspect in the killing of Rev. James Reeb after Bloody Sunday (the dealership is still owned by the suspect and in business today); local women who worked tirelessly to pay poll taxes and train African Americans how to pass the voting literacy tests; personal memories of Bloody Sunday when state police beat nonviolent protesters after they crossed the Edmund Pettis Bridge; and of setting up camps along the route for the march to Montgomery.

Throughout the week we met ordinary people, like Nelson Malden of Montgomery, who cut Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s hair, and who not only recalled conversations with him, but shared his memories of the relationship of Dr. King to the Montgomery community. We watched the Spike Lee documentary, "Four Little Girls," in the presence of Chris McNair, father of Denise McNair who was killed at the age of 11 when a white supremacist ignited a bomb on September 15, 1963 in the 16th Street Baptist Church.

We experienced all of this with a group of honest, sincere, good humored people -- some Black; some white; some late into their middle age years; some in their early teens. It was an honor to spend a week with each and every one of them. What I'll take away the most is that the civil rights movement was certainly one of charismatic and brave leaders, but also of ordinary people who can inspire all of us today to take a stand against the injustices that have resurfaced with such force.

A couple of thoughts:

• At least three people who we spoke with said that they had never seen the United States more polarized either internally -- or around the world -- than ever before. These were people who had seen "Bull" Connor drive around Birmingham inside of a white tank terrorizing the African American population.
• On the last day, we all participated in service projects in Birmingham. Mine was at a social service organization serving adults obtaining a GED. We were in charge of cleaning out and reorgaizing a storage shed behind the center. The center looked to be a place that did amazing work with very few resources -- much like other similar organizations I have seen in Pennsylvania. All around the center were photocopied pictures and posters of images that we had seen all week: protesters being fire-hosed, photos of the girls killed at 16th Street Baptist Church, etc. It was a reminder of how important and alive the moment in history that we learned about this week is to the people in communities all over the South, and especially in Alabama.