The James Farmer Multicultural Center is co-sponsoring a social justice trip with the office of the Vice-President for Equity and Access to travel the same route of the 1961 Freedom Riders from Fredericksburg (which was the first stop after they left Washington D.C.) to Birmingham, AL. Dr. Farmer coordinated this trip in 1961 to protest the non-enforcement of the desegregated interstate bus travel. This journey will include stops at several of the same places the Freedom Riders stopped, whether it was to speak with other civil rights activists or student leaders at Bennett College in NC, meet and strategize for next steps in the trip in GA, or just to have a safe place to sleep for the night. Along the way, we will be visiting the International Civil Rights Center in Greensboro, NC and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, AL. Other visits will include The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and the Atlanta University Center in Atlanta, GA.
Date: Saturday, October 12 – Monday night, October 14.
Purpose: To give UMW students an opportunity to witness and learn more about the sites, history, and experiences of the Freedom Rides, and other significant landmarks and trailblazers of the Civil Rights movement, from a first-hand perspective.
Details: We will be staying Saturday night at the Emory Conference Center Hotel in Atlanta, GA and the second night at the Hilton Garden Inn Lakeshore in Birmingham, Alabama. The cost to secure your place on this trip is $67, which covers the travel and hotel rooms at both hotels. The $67 is non-refundable. There will be four students per room in the hotels and each student is responsible for their own meals during this trip. In order to secure your seat on the bus, you must register for the trip. In addition, we MUST receive your full, non-refundable payment in the James Farmer Multicultural Center.
Register: Registration is on a first come, first serve basis. Students can register at https://forms.gle/NpA2m74FdGewPePu8. You can come by the James Farmer Multicultural Center to pay for your space on this trip by cash or money order. If you are paying with a money order, please make it out to The University of Mary Washington. The James Farmer Multicultural Center is located in the University Center, Room 319. The deadline to register is Monday, September 23 at 5 pm.
Questions: Please contact cwilli27@umw.edu. Christopher Williams, Assistant Director of the James Farmer Multicultural Center.