‘EYE-OPENING EXPERIENCE’

Compiled by Baptist and Reflector staff

Approximately 50 members of the Stand Together Fellowship recently traveled to Alabama for a ‘ Justice Journey’ tour. The group, comprised of black and white civic leaders and pastors in Columbia, was formed in 2016 to promote equality and harmony. Here’s a look at their itinerary from the two-day trip, which Steve Livengood, pastor at FBC, Columbia, called “an eye-opening experience”:  

Tuesday July 9: 

• Made the bus ride from Columbia to Birmingham, Ala.
• Visited 16th Street Baptist Church, where four young black girls were killed by a bomb during Sunday School in 1963.
• Visited the outdoor memorial park for the four slain girls.
• Visited the Civil Rights Museum.
• Took a bus ride to Tuskeegee, Ala., to hear and meet black preacher/attorney/author Fred Gray, who represented Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders.
• Visted the Tuskeegee air base that served as the training site for  the “Tuskeegee Airmen” — a very efficient and effective group of African-American  Airmen during World War II (at a time when the Air Force generally believed that black men were not capable of becoming fighter pilots).
• Took a bus ride to Montgomery, Ala.
• Visited Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and the Alabama State Capitol building (just a few blocks apart), where Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized.

Wednesday, July 10

• Visited the Equal Justice Initiative, an interactive slavery/civil rights/lynching history museum in Montgomery.
• “Toured” the bus that Rosa Parks rode in, when she refused to move to the back.
• Took a bus ride to Selma, Ala.
• Visited Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, where the March from Selma to Montgomery was organized.
• Walked across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, where the March to Montgomery began after the third attempt.
• Rode the bus back to Columbia on Wednesday night; during the ride, the movie “Selma” was viewed. B&R