Mayterm Road Trip Through Civil Rights Landmarks

April 7, 2017 Grace Mitchell, Staff Writer/Intern

This Mayterm, HSU students are taking a road trip through civil rights landmarks in the American South.

Professor Melissa Milliorn will be offering a social work class entitled Engaging Diversity and Difference, Dr. Coleman Patterson will be teaching a leadership course on Civil Rights, and Dr. John Eric Swenson will be offering Psychology of Racism.

“The classes will be academically rigorous and challenging, but we also want them to resonate with the students at a heart level,” Swenson said.

One of the highlights of the trip will be a visit to Morehouse College, which HSU’s founder, James B. Simmons, was instrumental in founding. 

“We want to teach the students more about Simmons and his role as an abolitionist,” Swenson said. “That’s part of our heritage here.”

The students will also visit the Smith Robertson Museum in Jackson, MI; the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, AL; the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, AL; Martin Luther King’s Birth Home in Birmingham, AL; and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN.

While in Memphis, the students will visit Hardin-Simmons’ first African American graduate, Richard David Dean. He will share a unique perspective from his experience at HSU.

The trip will last nine days (May 14-23) and will include over 24 hours on the road. This time will be utilized for students to watch civil rights documentaries on the bus.

The trip only costs $500 plus tuition thanks to President Bruntmyer’s generous offer to pay for the charter bus.

More than 40 students have already registered for one of the three classes. Students who are still interested should contact the respective professor by the end of the week. 

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