Civil Rights Tour Day One

I'm writing this post on a charter bus en route to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta.

This trip to the King Center is part of the annual Civil Rights Tour sponsored by the Community Relations Commission in my city, Columbus, Ohio. The sold-out bus trip consists of a multi-generational, multi-racial group of my fellow Ohioans.

In addition to the King Center, the tour will make stops at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., site of the historic 1965 civil rights march that was portrayed in the Oscar-nominated movie "Selma." 

Since 2015 is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act, this trip is incredibly meaningful to me as an African American who grew up in an interracial family.

The tour began this morning at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati. 

A very knowledgeable docent named Harvey kicked off our tour by teaching us about the history of Ohio River, which can be seen clearly outside the Freedom Center's windows. Though it's named for the Buckeye State, the river is actually owned by Kentucky, as we learned.

Harvey related that Ohio's motto, "The Heart of It All," grew out of the fact that the area was the center of trade during slavery, when barges carrying indigo, cotton and other crops passed through. 

The river also marks the line between Ohio and Kentucky, where many runaway slaves crossed over into freedom, as depicted in the classic novel "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book was written by famous Ohioan Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Harvey related that the term "sold down the river" originated in this area. The term refers to hucksters deceiving free blacks into being sold into slavery and sent down the Ohio River to plantations in the Deep South.

This "sold down the river" practice is one of the key plot points in the Oscar-winning movie "12 Years a Slave." The Freedom Center includes a "Solomon Northrup Tour," named after the real-life historical figure from the movie who lived to tell about his experience of being tricked into servitude.

The Freedom Center also has a Holocaust Memorial and a piece of the former Berlin Wall on display.

After the enlightening experience at the Freedom Center, I'm looking forward to the rest of the journey. 

Before we departed Cincinnati, the city's Police Chief Jeffrey Blackwell, who is African American and used to be a Columbus police officer, addressed the group and wished us well on our travels.

As we continue on the long journey to Atlanta, the mood on the bus is jovial. Columbus Community Relations Commission Executive Director Napoleon Bell invited the "freedom riders" to come to the front of the bus and share their impressions of the Freedom Center tour.

Two white female students from Columbus State Community College's "Diversity and Inclusion" class spoke movingly about how their eyes have been opened to the atrocities African Americans endured during slavery.

I also spoke, overcoming my shyness. I shared that as a native Ohioan, I'm impressed that my home state - though considered "flyover territory" - has a world-class museum and many other resources that not enough of us take full advantage of.

If Day One is any indication, the rest of the trip will be bountiful...