Clement Gibson
Blue & White Flash / Editor-in-Chief
Students from the University of Wisconsin-Lacrosse, Eau-Claire and the University of Winchester in England, embarked on a 10-day Civil Rights Pilgrimage.
The group came together and traveled to the south to see sites of historical significance from the Civil Rights Movement.
Eight students coordinate the trip each year. The coordinators do research,
follow ideas from previous coordinators and create their own itinerary. This year’s trip marks number 21 in the last 11 years.
Jackson is on the back end of their 10-day pilgrimage. Prior to their arrival, they visited the Whitney Plantation outside of Baton Rouge, Selma and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
They also stopped in Montgomery to see the new Legacy Museum and the Peace and Justice Memorial before continuing to Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Atlanta and Gulfport, Miss.
While at JSU, the group attended the 51stAnnual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Convocation on Jan. 20, 2019.
Following JSU, their next two stops will be in Jackson to visit Medgar Evers’ home and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum.
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.
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.
Jodi Thesing-Ritter serves as the executive director for diversity and inclusion at The University of Wisconsin Eau-Claire.
She also teaches a course called Women of Civil Rights, one in which many of the students on the pilgrimage are taking this semester.
Over 1,800 faculty, students and staff participated on this trip in the past 21 years— Thesing-Ritter has yet to miss one.
Thesing-Ritter thanks Theatre Faculty Fellow and Founder of MADDRAMA Performance Troupe, Mark G. Henderson for inviting the group back to Jackson State.
“We 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,” said Thesing-Ritter.
After the convocation, members of MADDRAMA ate lunch with the students from Wisconsin and England.
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
Thomas stated, “People are a lot nicer. They’ll 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.”
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.
“It’s one thing for me to read about my history, but it’s 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’s so surreal and amazing because I’m 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,” said Burrell.
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.
He continued, “As 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.”
Although time was short for Burrell and many of the students, faculty and staff that visited Thee I Love, one thing is for sure— this won’t be their last visit.
