The following blog was written by Giles Holt, UUSC's JustWorks intern, during Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey 2008.

On our Civil Rights Journey, it became apparent to me that what Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, the Congress of Racial Equality, and others were fighting for was not just civil rights. These men and women were engaged in a struggle for human rights. They were fighting for a common dignity.

I embarked on this journey to learn about part of our nation's history. At first, my approach was academic. Yet, when history still lives on, that approach is impossible. I ended my journey with an entirely new conception of what I was doing.

For the first half of our week together, I remained unchallenged. I could walk into a museum, listen to a speech about the history of the place, read the plaques, and leave feeling contented that I had broadened my perspective. I was learning, but I could have sat at a desk and received a lot of that same information.

But a transition from history to life, and from trip to journey, began to take place as the week progressed, as our workshop facilitator Dr. Kimberley Roberts led us through discussions of equality and humanity, and as the lessons presented at various historical sites began to strengthen. I found that the facts, dates, and morals that I was learning only became understanding as I put them into direct action.

On Thursday and Friday, we applied our historical and moral lessons. We traveled to the Bethesda Church in Brighton, Ala., one of thirty churches in a small city of 3,600 people, with a membership of around one hundred. While the church had undergone significant renovations, it was still in need of extensive work. The outside paint was peeling, and there appeared to be water damage on the inside. But this did not deter the minister or the congregation from committing to a course of social action and leadership in their community.

The congregation had applied for — and received — a grant from Home Depot to repair several houses in the community. This is where we came in.

With a group of forty-two Civil Rights Journey participants, we were able to work on four work projects in Brighton.

My team was assigned to Mrs. Ethel Young's house, a two-story building. Mr. Norman, the project coordinator and a leader in the Bethesda church, arrived to check on our team. Placing a hand on my shoulder, he asked, "Do you need anything, brother Giles?" This recognition of our shared place in a struggle that has come to encompass so much of our nation affirmed my humanity in a way that I had yet to experience.

It was through our service and action that we were able to take up the civil-rights and human-rights struggle that was started so many years before, and for two days, we won that struggle.

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Stephanie Hanway, of Laramie, Wyoming

The following blog was written by Stephanie Hanway, of Laramie, Wyo., while participating in UUSC's annual Freedom Summer: A Civil Rights Journey. She is 18 years old.

I came on this trip clueless. When we were in Selma, I was scared to get off the bus, thinking it was Salem [where the witch trials took place]. I also grew up thinking Georgia was the capitol of Alabama, when both are states.

What drew my attention to this trip was the chance to travel; however, that is not entirely why I continue. It has been my blessing not only to travel in the present, but also to travel in the past and experience history.

Because I am Arapahoe, Native American, slavery is not part of my heritage. That's not to say that I can't take something from the civil rights movement to help my people, my country, and myself — just like Martin Luther King, Jr., was inspired by Gandhi.

If there is any hope for me to one day help my people, I must first find that hope in myself. And that is what this trip has guided me towards.

Race, gender, age, and class are all part of a puzzle. And not to look at it is not to solve it. The first step in fighting any oppression is not just knowing where we stand, but allowing everyone else to know it, as well. Being of an outside minority has allowed me to see the same things, but from a different perspective.

It is an honor to thank the program for instilling this seed of knowledge in me to aspire to grow more bountifully, both inside and out. The greatest thing that I appreciate from this trip is the way I was invited, rather than pushed, through the doors of history. One can only remember so much in a classroom, but one remembers so much of her own personal experiences.

This truly was a journey, in itself.

The following blog post was written by Camilo Mejia while participating in UUSC's annual Freedom Summer: Civil Rights Journey. Mejia is a nationally recognized peace activist and the first Iraq war veteran to publicly refuse to return to combat.

Day 3 of the Civil Rights Journey started at 7 a.m. with a traditional southern breakfast at the Capitol Inn's café. By 8 a.m. we were well on our way to Selma, Ala., where our day would begin with a visit to The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute.

Alabama police attack Selma-to-Montgomery Marchers, 1965.

The 45-minute bus ride to Selma wasn't long enough to finish the Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1985 episode on the battle against segregation in the lunch counters and downtown stores of Nashville, Tenn. Still, it was a great introduction to a day that would take us down the path of resistance to segregation in two historical events: Bloody Sunday and the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

Sam Walker, our guide at The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, gave us a lively presentation about the main events, such as the killing of Jimmie Lee Jackson and the shutting down of registration centers in order to prevent African American citizens from voting, which launched the two historic marches. We then learned how the marches were organized and carried out, initially viewed as setbacks by some, but then leading to two crucial victories in the movement: a federal judge's decision to uphold the protesters' right to march and force the government to provide protection for the marchers.

Our second stop was the most powerful of the day. It seemed a bit odd, as I got out of the bus at The Slavery and Civil War Museum, that one of the guides told me to "get over there with the men, against the wall!" At first I didn't make much of it, but then she told us (men and women) to bow our heads and to avoid making eye contact with her. What followed was an incredibly intense interactive reenactment of the treatment of African slaves, from their capture in Africa all the way to slave markets in the United States.

"Can you imagine..." asked the guide in a dark and scary chamber that resembled the belly of a slave ship, "... being taken away from your family; never again seeing your wives; never again seeing your husbands, your children, your home, only because of the color of your skin?" "Can you imagine..." she continued, "... being chained to a person who's dying or dead? Can you imagine one of your friends being cut up in pieces and then fed to you, only because of the color of your skin?"

The tour continued through more rooms, each challenging us more and more not only to absorb the history in an abstract way, but also to physically put ourselves into situations that made us feel just a tiny bit closer to the horrible realities that were the lives of slaves.

More traditional southern food and stops at historical sites in Selma followed our visit, but that visit and the intense realism of it was by far the greatest lesson of day three of this amazing journey. If all people were able to visit The Slavery Museum and get but a small taste of the inherent cruelty, violence, and brutality behind racism and its byproducts (slavery, lynching, segregation, etc.), I think the struggle for equality would be much easier to win. If only we could educate people; if we used history to learn from our mistakes instead of perpetuating them by ignoring it, I think the world would be a much better place.

Can you imagine?

Edward Loomis, of Chicago, Ill., wrote the following blog post while participating in UUSC's annual Freedom Summer: Civil Rights Journey.