San Francisco, CA – Today, the California based organization Sojourn Project announced their trip through the South in which 50 students, many of whom participated in the March for Our Lives, will get to experience the Civil Rights Movement firsthand. The educational project is in its 19th year and has taken over 6000 teachers and students through this powerful and transformative week-long journey.
Sojourn Project explores key points of the Civil Rights Movement—from Mississippi to Alabama to Tennessee. Along the way, students meet with civil rights leaders, among them Congressman John Lewis and Minnijean Brown Trickey of the Little Rock Nine. Students learn about their experiences as young civil rights leaders and are inspired to continue the struggle against racial inequality and for social justice.
“Sojourn Project has had an incredible impact on me,” said Ana Maria Vazquez, a 2-trip Sojourn Alum and first year college student. “I came back home and became politically involved. I joined the March for Our Lives because this is my generation’s Civil Rights Movement against gun violence and police brutality.”
Students get to experience the civil rights movement first hand at each stop by learning about each location, seeing it for themselves, and meeting the people that were there. It is often an emotional experience and touches every student in a different way. Sojourn Project’s award-winning program transforms the lives of every young person that has had the opportunity to attend, most go on to become community activist and even elected officials.
The upcoming trip will take place between March 31st and April 6th stops include the National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee, and 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, among others.
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About Sojourn Project: Sojourn Project is a unique, transformative, and empowering academic immersion program that takes middle school students, 11th and 12th graders, and college students on a life-changing journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement through the American South. Sojourn Project’s holistic, educational approach incorporates music, text, and video into a rigorous curriculum that introduces students to historical sites, monuments, and museums. Most importantly, students are able to interact with the actors of the Movement themselves. To date, more than 6,000 students and teachers have participated in over sixty journeys.