Aliento in Alabama!

This past weekend our Aliento crew of 22 flew out to Alabama for a 3-day weekend learning trip. We visited various locations to get the most out of our experience! 

On day one, our first stop was to the Civil Rights Memorial, which pays tribute to 41 people who were killed in their struggle for equality for all different races. We also visited Martin Luther King Jr.’s house and the Rosa Parks Museum. 

Alabama was one of the largest slave markets during the slavery era. We walked around the streets of Montgomery and visited sites and buildings that were used during the Slave Trade.

Day two, we visited The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which displays the history of slavery in America. We also visited The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which is dedicated to the 4,400 victims of racial terror and lynchings that  happened between 1877 to 1940.

On our last day, we stopped at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a lawyer, judge, Confederate brigadier general, head of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and U.S. Senator. At this bridge, MLK marched alongside the Civil Rights Movement from Selma to Montgomery calling for equal voting rights for African Americans in 1965.

 By exposing ourselves to these learning sites and immersing ourselves in this history, we walked away having gained a better understanding of topics like slavery, mass incarceration, and the Civil Rights movement. Our trip around Alabama left a mark on us and has been important to making connections between the immigrant rights movement and past struggles for rights.