Civil rights trip planned for Atlanta to honor MLK

The best way to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day is to pack your bags and head to King’s home in Atlanta.

At least that’s what graduate student Patrick Hale, diversity education specialist for the CommUNITY Education Program, said he believes.

Sponsored by the program, the campus MLK Celebration Committee and the Office of the Provost, 52 members of the IU community, including 48 students, will travel to several colleges and landmarks in Atlanta that signify important black history.

“We chose Atlanta because we felt it would be important to go to the center of the civil rights movement,” Hale said. “It seems the appropriate location.”

A tradition that first began in January 2003, the Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Immersion Trip has traveled to different locations each year in hopes of teaching students more about civil rights struggles of the past and the present. 

“Along the way, we also hoped to inspire students to find a cause they believed and to get involved,” said Barry Magee, assistant director for Diversity Education in Residential Programs and Services.

He said going to Atlanta was always an idea, but the distance caused hesitation. This year, the group will depart a day earlier and travel overnight to make the trip easier.
 
Hale recently wrote about why historically black institutions still exist today and their importance to the community. He said he looks forward to visiting Morehouse College.  
“These trips give people a learning experience not found at the Indiana University campus,” Hale said. 

Senior Radley Alcantara, a CommUNITY Educator for Foster Quad, helped organize the trip and is also looking forward to meeting students from Morehouse, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University.

The students will be taking tours of the schools and engaging in a summit that will allow them to discuss different topics.

“Not just the history, but also what are we doing today or what can we do today to further civil rights movements,” Magee said.

Other sites the group will visit include the African American Panoramic Experience Museum, the National Parks’ King Visitors Center, the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church and the King Center, which includes King’s tomb and birth home.

Magee said these trips are important in teaching students the things that are not in their history textbooks.

“I think talking to the kids and seeing what their campus is like and getting a feel for their culture will be an experience,” Alcantara said. “It will definitely be different.”