New journey information to civil rights websites charts a street map of historical past

Deborah Douglas lived in parallel worlds for almost a year. During the week she taught journalism classes at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. When she wasn’t teaching, she got on a plane or rental car to explore eight states and DC while writing a guide for the civil rights movement.

Recently published, “Moon US Civil Rights Trail: A Guide to the People, Places, and Events That Made the Movement,” tells the story of Black America’s pursuit of equality and justice. “It’s a travel book, but this is also a history book and a civic primer,” says Douglas. “And it’s a roadmap to activism if you want it.”

Douglas, whose journalism and teaching has long focused on issues of justice and justice, knew that her book couldn’t possibly cover all of the highlights of the ever-growing U.S. Civil Rights Trail, launched in 2018 by a number of state tourism associations. and goes as far east as Wilmington, Del., and as far west as Topeka, Kan. – so she set out to tell the story of the movement through some of its catalytic moments.

It includes places like the Old Slave Mart Museum in Charleston, SC; the birthplace of Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta; the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Ala .; Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Miss .; Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock; the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis; and the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

In 1957, nine African American students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas. The all-white school became a key test of a new federal desegregation law resulting from the decision of the US Supreme Court on the Brown V Board of Education.

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The book also includes interviews with activists and icons, as well as recommendations on visits for dining, shopping, and entertainment, with an emphasis on black-owned businesses.

Douglas explains that the guide is not intended to be followed in a single trip. Rather, she hopes people will explore it in small chunks, take a weekend getaway here, or add a detour there to incorporate those important bits of history into their travel routines.

“In my experience, black narratives and black spaces aren’t automatically curated for cultural tourism or for cultural exploration,” she says. “I’ve found that there is so much history outside of our front doors.”

The book is an invitation to explore this story and take our role in shaping it for the better every day. Douglas recently reviewed the book in an interview which was edited for clarity and length.

Q: What were some of the most memorable experiences while researching the book?

A: When I was in Birmingham [Ala.,] I walked through Kelly Ingram Park, which has many monuments and plaques that really contextualize what happened in the 1963 Birmingham Campaign, which included the Children’s Crusade. Those civil rights iconic images of water hoses being let loose on people and the barking dogs and police beating people with batons – that was the Children’s Crusade and the police attacked children. So I walk through the park and see a group of older white men led by an older black gentleman. He suddenly starts singing and leads her in this stirring spiritual song: “I will sing when the spirit sings.” … I felt at home.

I later found out that he is Bishop Calvin Woods of Shiloh Baptist Church. I reached out to him and he told me the story of the creation of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights in 1956. The NAACP had been banned in Alabama, so blacks from all over the city had a secret meeting to discuss what to do to replace the NAACP and advocate for civil rights.

So I ask the Reverend Woods, “Who was at the meeting? Were there women? “And he says,” Wait, young lady. Just go back. Nobody needs you to know who was where, when and how what. You stop! “I found that unbelievable. It was 2020 when I had this conversation with him. And then it was dangerous for them to assemble and do what they were going to do. Word was bond then, and word is bond now. He still protects her until the end of time.

Another time I was on Dynamite Hill in Birmingham. I hired a guide that day, Barry McNealy, and we met Jeff Drew, son of civil rights activists John and Deenie Drew. He still lives in the family house where Dr. Martin Luther King lived during the Birmingham Campaign. The interior of the house was designed to protect it from bombs, and a barricade in front of it was erected by his father to prevent white supremacists from bombing the family.

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in 1968, is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

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Q: Wow. It sounds like the experiences that stand out are the people you met and the stories they shared along the way. It’s about human connection.

A: Exactly. I have so many aunts, uncles, friends and cousins ​​now.

Q: What were some of the best things you have eaten?

A: Oh my goodness. OK, the wings at the Busy Bee Cafe in Atlanta. Dr. King ate there. They were just so golden and crispy. And then at the Lassis Inn in Little Rock. It was sort of a strategy place where Daisy Bates and people working on the school integration crisis in Little Rock would eat. They have something like buffalo ribs. It’s buffalo fish that I cooked with my grandmother outside of Memphis on Friday evenings. They cut it so that the fish looks like a rib! It is delicious.

And then you have to go to Paynes Bar-BQ in Memphis and get a barbecue bologna sandwich. It’s transgressive. I have nothing to do with eating a bologna sandwich, but here we are.

Q: You covered business too. Did you bring any souvenirs home with you?

A: I haven’t bought a lot. But I can tell you I really enjoyed the gift shop at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. It has really great books, including a children’s book called “Sermon the Chickens,” which is the story of John Lewis and was written by my friend Jabari Asim. In this museum I was also very happy about a quilt by the quilter master Hystercine Rankin, whom I had met in the 90s. In the gift shop there were these little pieces of quilt that were fridge magnets, so small and precious, and they reminded me of Mrs. Rankin and my own grandmother, Louise Purham, who was also a quilter.

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC is home to more than 36,000 artifacts and features exhibits related to African and African American culture, as well as contributions to arts and music, the military, athletics, and more.

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And then there’s a black-owned gift shop in Memphis called Cheryl Pesce The Lifestyle Store, located in the redesigned Crosstown Concourse. The shop has really nice jewelry, housewares, books and they have Mo’s Bows for sale. Moziah “Mo” Bridges was a little black boy in Memphis who started making flies as a child. He’s all grown up now, but Mo’s Bows are still going strong.

Q: At the end of your book is a timeline of events that have taken place since the civil rights movement, including the 2020 protests. What do you hope people will take away from this book when we travel again?

A: This is not a passive, past-looking experience. That’s the trick of these black and white images of the civil rights movement. It seems like it’s frozen in time. But that is a very living story. And now you have the opportunity to decide: Who do you want to be? Yes, we have more work to do. We are still dealing with the issues of this movement. It never really ended. But that’s a call to action, isn’t it? It will help you decide which side of the story to be on.

Silver is a freelance writer for the Washington Post.
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