“It’s important for students to learn about history, particularly history that has often been forgotten, erased, ignored and marginalized,” said Dr. Roy Vu, a history professor at Dallas College who specializes in immigration history, diaspora communities and diplomacy.
Media Contact: Debra Dennis; DDennis@DallasCollege.edu
For immediate release — March 20, 2023
(DALLAS) — History must be told and, if possible, experienced.
Nearly 100 students from all seven Dallas College campuses will retrace the steps of the Civil Rights Movement through several Southern states, visiting sites where courage was displayed and the movement began. A group of students and advisors will make the journey by bus for the three-day excursion, which will make stops at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Selma, Ala., among other locations.
“It’s important for students to learn about history, particularly history that has often been forgotten, erased, ignored and marginalized,” said Dr. Roy Vu, a history professor at Dallas College who specializes in immigration history, diaspora communities and diplomacy. “It's imperative that our students have the opportunity to learn about the history of the United States and of the world. History provides a lot of lessons.”
Civil Rights leaders in the 1950s and 1960s were clergy as well as working class citizens who endured threats, went to jail, and lost their homes and loved ones because they believed their cause was just. “They were so resourceful and resilient and innovative and courageous,” Vu said. “It's imperative that our students learn about the history of the United States because it provides a lot of lessons, including not wanting to repeat such traumatic events,” he added.
In addition to visiting Mississippi, the students will travel to Alabama. There, they will see the Edmund Pettus Bridge — the site of a bloody interaction between armed police and history makers who risked their lives for civility, voting rights, freedom and the right to be treated as citizens.
There is also a guided tour of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham where, in 1965, a bomb took the lives of four young girls.
The fight for voting rights and equal accommodations is among the long list of inequities that also galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. Students will see the history of dehumanization and brutality of systems like slavery and Jim Crow up close.
“A lot of times when we see history, we say, ‘Oh, that happened back then.’ But when we see what’s on the news, you know history is repeating,” said Shanee' Moore.
Shanee’ Moore, senior director of campus administration, who helped organized the trip, said there are parallels between the movement and current efforts to turn back the clock on equality and fair play.
“We’re very fortunate to have this generation of students,” said Moore. “They don’t just sit back. They see an injustice and regardless of race, religion or whatever, they speak up and do something about it. I think this [tour] will energize them.”
Among the most poignant events, organizers said, is the Legacy Museum started by attorney Bryan Stevenson, author of “Just Mercy.” The museum, located in Montgomery, is a harrowing account of lynching and the public that celebrated its brutality. Visitors are warned that some of its sites can be triggering, with holographic figures calling out their misery.
The students, Vu and Moore said, will return better informed and clamoring to continue learning.
“They will develop their own opinions about what is going on and how this is impacting their lives,” Moore said. “A lot of times when we see history, we say, ‘Oh, that happened back then.’ But when we see what’s on the news, you know history is repeating.”
###