Girls Rule Tours Civil Rights Monuments

Photos special to the Outlook

By Dianne Williams-Cox
Special to the Outlook

The Civil Rights Tour was a vision realized to take young ladies to learn of the history of Civil Rights. Girls Rule is an organization that was founded to train and prepare young ladies to become future leaders. By visiting and learning of the past, it is our hope that these young leaders will never forget the sacrifices made in the name of their freedom. We also reminded the young ladies of what it is that they can do to prepare to lead as our leaders in the past did.

 
We traveled from Tallahassee to Selma, Ala., where we walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and visited the local sites. From there, we visited the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum. The next day, we travelled to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., and what an eye opening experience for the young leaders to see. It was so emotional for them to see where Dr. King took his last breath and the vantage point of the shooter.

 
Of everything experienced, the most shocking was at the Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum in Atlanta, Ga. Sitting at the lunch counter and hearing the simulated sounds and words that were spoken to those who participated in the sit-ins made things really real and quite disturbing. We actually had to monitor the girls to determine if there was great impact and to remind them that this exercise was not real today, but that others had gone through this so that we would be able to sit and eat wherever we wanted.

 
The girls and the adults shared with me that their lives would never be the same after this tour back through history.