Alabama

Today we went to see the Greyhound bus station, which housed the bus that Rosa Parks sat on and an in depth explanation of the Montgomery bus boycotts as well as the freedom riders. Following this we went to see the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) where we spoke to Anthony Hinton, who was falsely convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death row. It took 30 years to prove his innocence by getting white males to say that the bullets didn't match the gun his mother had, when he knows just as well as everyone else did that they didn't match 30 years ago. When he was first arrested he was told, "we might have the wrong person, but I don't care," and, "you are going to be convicted no matter what," because he was a black male that fit the description of, "light skinned with a beard." It was very difficult to know that someone could so easily ruin someone's life through hatred, and to know that these injustices are still occurring today is heart breaking. From here we proceeded to the Southern Poverty Law Center where we recognized the many people who gave their lives for the Civil Rights Movement and we pledged to the Wall Of Tolerance where we vowed to stand up for injustices and oppression that we see happening today. We drove to Selma soon there after and toured the town to see how depressed everything still is and learn of the towns history. Before we left Selma last night, we crossed the Edmond Pettus bridge hand-in-hand singing songs of freedom.

Emily Berner, The Park School of Baltimore