st<\/sup>Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Convocation on Jan. 20, 2019.<\/p>\nFollowing JSU, their next two stops will be in Jackson to visit Medgar Evers\u2019 home and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.<\/p>\n
Next, the journey continues into Little Rock, Ark. to see the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Heifer International to learn about other models of social justice and Little Rock Central High School.<\/p>\n
Finally, they will travel to Memphis to see the National Civil Rights Museum; Civil Rights sites bus tour and the Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum.<\/p>\n
Jodi Thesing-Ritter serves as the executive director for diversity and inclusion at The University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.<\/p>\n
She also teaches a course called Women of Civil Rights, one in which many of the students on the pilgrimage are taking this semester.<\/p>\n
Over 1,800 faculty, students and staff participated on this trip in the past 21 years\u2014 Thesing-Ritter has yet to miss one.<\/p>\n
Thesing-Ritter thanks Theatre Faculty Fellow and Founder of MADDRAMA Performance Troupe, Mark G. Henderson for inviting the group back to Jackson State.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came last March and got to see MADDRAMA perform and it was fantastic. Our students absolutely wanted that to continue and be a part of our trips,\u201d said Thesing-Ritter.<\/p>\n
After the convocation, members of MADDRAMA ate lunch with the students from Wisconsin and England.<\/p>\n
Tamera Thomas, a freshman from Muscoda, Wis. studying at the University of Wisconsin- Eau Claire spoke on what she learned, and the differences she noticed while visiting the south<\/p>\n
Thomas stated, \u201cPeople are a lot nicer. They\u2019ll just come up and talk to you. In the north, everyone keeps to themselves unless they know you. I learned more about black history because in school they only tell you the major things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bedston Burrell, a senior sociology major from Milwaukee, Wis. who attends the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse and gave a vivid description of his visit to some of the historical sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one thing for me to read about my history, but it\u2019s another to actually be in the spots to see these monuments, to step on the same steps that Martin Luther King stepped on. We went to the bus stop and saw where Rosa Parks got picked up. For me, it\u2019s so surreal and amazing because I\u2019m literally picturing the events happening in front of me. When we went to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, I could see the horses, the people getting trampled, people locking arms, all of that,\u201d said Burrell.<\/p>\n
He went on to thank Jackson State and says he wishes they could spend more time at the University to interact with the great personalities he witnessed on stage at the MLK Jr. Convocation.<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cAs an African-American man, I want to say thank you for making us feel so welcomed into that space. I wish we had a chance to meet some of the people that were speaking on stage because they seemed like they had so much personality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although time was short for Burrell and many of the students, faculty and staff that visited Thee I Love, one thing is for sure\u2014 this won\u2019t be their last visit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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