Posted on Jan 18, 2010

Civil rights mini-term

In December, 12 Union students spent 18 days traveling from Charleston, S.C., to New Orleans, La., on the inaugural Civil Rights Public History Miniterm. Winding their way south through nine cities along the path of the fight for equality, they talked to civil rights veterans like Charles Person, a CORE Freedom Rider, C.T. Vivian, a close ally of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Joann Bland, a participant in the Bloody Sunday march on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

“I doubt I will ever forget what it was like to cross this bridge for the rest of my days,” said Peter Haviland-Eduah ’10 of walking the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where hundreds of people marching for black voting rights were beaten.

“The bridge is a symbol of moving from the past to the future, and I was privileged enough to get to make this physical connection to history.”

Joining Haviland-Eduah on the mini-term were juniors Sarayfah Bolling, Amanda Egan and Georgia Swan-Ambrose, seniors Marissa Gaines, Jared Gourrier, Ewodaghe Harrell, Elizabeth Mariapen, Aaron Ray, James Schellens and Sarah Tardiff, and sophomore Jessica Johnson.

The group was co-led by History Department Lecturer Melinda Lawson and Director of Post-Baccalaureate Fellowships Maggie Tongue, both of whom started planning the trip several years ago.

To learn more about the mini-term, part of Union’s new public history program, click here.