Far from over

Today in Mississippi we were fortunate enough to go the Sunflower County Freedom Project, a non-profit organization that, in their words, work "to expand our students' concepts of what it means to be a leader and a motivated student. We push our students academically, socially, and physically." We were also fortunate enough to meet some of the kids who take advantage of this program and talk with them about our different communities. As our time there began to wind down we ended our visit with a group Q and A asking each other questions we were pondering. Towards the end of this session someone said something that moved me. A question was asked from one of the kids on our trip and it was something along the lines of, what is something that bothers you today about the community. One boy answered this by mentioning that something that greatly bothers him is that in a neighboring county, Bolivar, there is still a school where segregated proms still exists. That amazed me. I didn't believe it. 2016 and in the United States segregation is still alive and well in it's original form. The words of all the leaders and participants echoed in my head as I heard that, that a lot has been done but there's still a lot more to do and that it's up to us to continue to fight injustice. 

Steven Villa, The Park School of Baltimore