Disclaimer: I apologize for the length of this post as I originally intended for it to be two posts.
Part 1
Day 1: After taking a long drive to Atlanta the day before, I came here eager to explore this new city and immerse myself into the culture of Atlanta. This is exactly what this day helped us ease into as we served at the Truly Living Well Community Garden, and toured the historically black Morehouse College. At Truly Living Well, the man who presided over our service had an expansive amount of knowledge of gardening and farming. This information that he gifted us with is exactly what we will bring back to our Bonner service in the fall to help our garden flourish. Truly Living Well, allows people who were sanctioned by the court into community service, to serve there. However, I did not meet any of those people but would’ve loved to learn more insight about our criminal justice system. At Morehouse College, there was an unparreleled sense of camaraderie, pride, tradition and brotherhood compared to any college I visited. Martin Luther King amongst other civil rights activists attended this prestigious university at a time blacks were not admitted to other universities. Morehouse provides an excellent story of how a downtrodden people overcame adversity.
Day 2: That morning we visited Essence of Hope food pantry. It was very different from the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank in many ways. It was more run down but it was a far more eye opening experience. Half of the people serving were given the option to stay an extra hour to serve the needy their food rations. I heavily enjoyed this and found this to be the most altruistic experience that I’ve had while serving in Atlanta as I was interacting with people who needed my help. Many of the people I served food to were elderly and I thought about how they were likely around my current age at the time of segregation and the civil rights movement. I wish I could have asked one of those elderly people about their experience during that time period. We then visited the Civil Rights Museum which I heavily enjoyed. The extensively covered the Freedom Riders, and I learned that Atlanta was the most progressive city in the South when it came to the Civil Rights Movement. Atlanta was actually the first Southern city to end segregation. I sat at the lunch counter simulation which simulates who civil rights activists were treated during sit ins. I stayed for the entire time but many other people couldn’t because of the disturbing way these people were treated. I honestly wish I could’ve stayed longer and found myself taking pictures of exhibits (that we were allowed to photograph) at the end(museum was closing) because I was extremely immersed in this. The top story of the museum contained an exhibit of Civil Rights from an international perspective and the work that still needs to be done. My only critique about this museum is that they did not cover the racial terrorism through the rampant lynchings that Southern White's committed to keep their Black population subjugated into segregation. Georgia lynched the second highest amount of people, at nearly 500.
Part 2
Day 3: That morning we toured the historically black neighborhood of Auburn. A place that spear-headed the Civil Rights Movement. It contained the first black YMCA, the first black Masonic lounge, and numerous predecessors to Dr. King. This neighborhood is where Dr. King was raised and we had the privilege of touring his childhood home. Dr. King had an interesting childhood, being raised in relatively better circumstances than his other black peers. This experience humanized Dr. King instead of viewing him as a christ-like public figure. It was hilarious to hear about King’s childhood antics as he seemed to get himself into a lot of trouble, like destroying his family garage or jumping off the roof pretending he was Superman. At the end of the day we saw some of the King Center but we returned there on Thursday. We concluded our day with a lecture from Ashley Farmer.
Day 4: We began this day by touring Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King, his brother and his father were ministers. We listened to a recording of one of his sermons and I felt the inspiration in his words. I was saddened to learn that his mother was murdered here by a mentally man and that his father died of a broken heart after losing her, and his two sons. At the reflection pool, I learned that Dr. King and his wife were actually buried there from one of the security guards at the park. The guard gave me insight about his brother James “accidental” death of drowning in his pool despite being a fantastic swimmer and the fact there were marks found on his neck. I also gave him some information in return that I learned in my African American history course this semester. We returned to the Essence of Hope food pantry to continue our service that we did on Tuesday and had a dinner afterwards to conclude our trip.
Conclusion: Atlanta was a fantastic and eye opening experience for me. I would heavily recommend any underclassman Bonner to go to this trip. I personally believe that a great way to get underclassmen to attend these trips is to have upperclassmen who have been on these trips to discuss their experiences. This is something I am willing to do, if my suggestion becomes a reality.
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