Social Justice Fall Break Trip

2024: “On the Civil Rights Trail…from UMW to Selma, AL”

The James Farmer Multicultural Center is sponsoring a social justice trip to Montgomery and Selma, AL. This journey will include stops at various historical civil rights sites, including Rock Hill, SC, where the 1961 Freedom Riders first experienced brutal violence for testing the segregation laws in the state of SC, as well the site of the 1960 McCrory’s Five & Dime Sit-Ins. Along the way, we will be visiting the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and the Freedom Rides museums in Montgomery, AL. Additionally, we will walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, AL, the site of Bloody Sunday in 1965. In March 2025, this nation will commemorate the 60^th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, a civil rights movement that was organized by the late Congressman John Lewis (then chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) and representatives from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, led by the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Date: Saturday, October 12 – Tuesday morning, October 15.

Purpose: To give UMW students an opportunity to witness and learn more about different U. S. Civil Rights Trail sites, history, and trailblazers of the Civil Rights movement, from a first-hand perspective.

UMW alumni and community members–including faculty, staff, parents, and more–can register here.

Student Details: We will be staying Saturday and Sunday nights at the Drury Inn and Suites Montgomery in Montgomery, AL. The cost to secure your place on this trip is $120, which covers the travel and hotel rooms for both nights. The $120 is non-refundable. Students will be assigned four students per room in the hotel and be responsible for their own meals during this trip. Breakfast on Sunday and Monday mornings are provided by the hotel. In order to secure your seat on the bus, you must register for the trip. In addition, we MUST receive your full, non-refundable payment in the James Farmer Multicultural Center. The deadline to register is Monday, September 9 at 5 pm.

Register: Registration is on a first come, first-serve basis. Students can register here.

You can come by the James Farmer Multicultural Center to pay for your space on this trip by cash or money order. If you are paying with a money order, please make it payable to The University of Mary Washington. The James Farmer Multicultural Center is located in the Cedric Rucker University Center, room 319. The deadline to register is Monday, September 9 at 5 pm.

Questions: Please contact cwilli27@umw.edu, msanford@umw.edu, or djones29@umw.edu.

Previous Social Justice Fall Break Trips

In 2019, the James Farmer Multicultural Center cosponsored a social justice trip with the office of the Vice-President for Equity and Access to travel the same route of the 1961 Freedom Riders from Fredericksburg (which was the first stop after they left Washington D.C.) to Birmingham, AL. Dr. Farmer coordinated this trip in 1961 to protest the non-enforcement of the desegregated interstate bus travel. This journey included stops at several of the same places the Freedom Riders stopped, whether it was to speak with other civil rights activists or student leaders at Bennett College in NC, meet and strategize for next steps in the trip in GA, or just to have a safe place to sleep for the night. Along the way, we visited the International Civil Rights Center in Greensboro, NC and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, AL. Other visits included The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change and the Atlanta University Center in Atlanta, GA.

A group standing in front of a placard at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

Attendees standing outside of The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, AL.

Students before entering the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

A student stands before a wall of jars containing soil from sites around the U.S. on which racial terror lynchings occurred.

Students in front of the sign to Selma, Alabama before making an historic walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Students making the same walk as Dr. Martin Luther King and Civil Rights Leaders across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

In October 2018, the James Farmer Multicultural Center co-sponsored a social justice trip to Montgomery and Selma, Alabama with the African Student Union, Black Student Association, and Latino Student Association, for UMW’s Fall Break. We travelled to the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery and the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.

The 2018 Social Justice Fall Break Trip gave UMW students an opportunity to witness history through the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, by telling the complete story of not only lynching but the continual struggle for social justice and equal rights in the United States. Also, it fulfilled two of the goals outlined in the strategic vision of the University, as it pertains to promoting the values of service and social justice and immersing our students in applied, impactful learning experiences.

For more information, contact the James Farmer Multicultural Center at 540/654-1044 or umwjfmc@gmail.com. Visit students.umw.edu/multicultural.

Please email us at umwjfmc@gmail.com if you have any questions regarding disability-related accommodations.