Founder Of The National Voting Rights Museum example essay topic

"The good neighbor looks beyond the external accidents and discerns those inner qualities that make all men human, and, therefore, brothers". Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached this to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church. I found this to be true on a trip I took to the Deep South with a group I am in called Operation Understanding Hampton Roads. OUHR promotes the interaction between Jewish and African American students in order to learn about each others cultures. In the Deep South, my OUHR group visited several cities which were significant to the civil rights movement, such as Selma, Montgomery, Birmingham, and Atlanta. Since I have grown up in a racially tolerant house, I felt I had nothing to gain from the trip besides an enjoyably week with my new OUHR friends.

Much to my surprise, it was in these cities where I learned the true meaning of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words. It is important to be a participant in life rather than a bystander held fast by prejudice and convention. The city that changed my perspective the most was Birmingham, Alabama. Our tour guide showed me the light. We arrived in Birmingham in the pouring rain and stopped in front of an old church on 16th street. Suddenly, a very warm and hearty woman's voice rang over the speaker in the bus; "Aight boo's, er " ry body best get off this bus be fo' I start crack in' em!" This was my first glimpse of Joanne Bland.

She lined my group up on the stairs to what we soon learned was the 16th street Baptist Church; the site of a bombing which killed African American four girls. Following the tragic event, white strangers, even some with Confederate license plates, visited the grieving families to express their sorrow. At the funeral for three of the girls, Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke about life being 'as hard as crucible steel. ' More than 8,000 mourners, including 800 clergymen of both races, attended the service. Joanne explained that this event was historic because people of both races gathered together to mourn.

This was one of the first times that people went against the conventional thinking of the time. Race did not matter; it was the fact that four innocent children, who were killed in an act of violence, needed to be memorialized. This was a crucial step to attaining civil rights for everyone, and towards my better understanding of why this was important. From there, Joanne took us to the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, where I learned the importance of involvement.

The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute was founded in Selma, Alabama by survivors of America's 'Bloody Sunday' massacre to honor the courage of civil rights supporters who endured hatred and violence and died to gain the right to vote for Black Americans. Joanne told us about an 11 year old girl who stood with the marchers and was jailed with them until they were freed by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In 1964, that girl, who was our tour guide, Joanne Bland, became the founder of the National Voting Rights Museum. She told us that after all of the events that she lived through, she could not just sit around and expect people to remember the horrors of that time. She "worked her fanny into overdrive" as she said, to fund and to establish the museum. From there, she explained that there would not be any civil rights if people like her didn't stand up for what they believed in.

Her "local boos" did not stand by and let matter take care of themselves. They took matters into their own hands, got involved, and attained the freedoms that they so desperately deserved. Next, we traveled to the Edmund Pet tus Bridge. Joanne left us there with one final message. She told us that we would discover the purpose for our group's visit to the South once we were on the bridge. It was here that voting rights marchers were brutally confronted by law enforcement officers.

The demonstration and the subsequent struggle was known as Bloody Sunday and eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. We crossed the bridge by foot singing "We Shall Overcome". Finally I had become a participant in the civil rights movement. Now, I have a better understanding of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words. Tolerance is not the only key to equality.

Getting involved is the first step. Spreading tolerance is the next step, even if it means going against the norm. Finally, there will be equality when everyone, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, can join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'.