"Intelligence plus character--that is the goal of true education."

As I sit here in the airport, yet again, I look back at the week I just had here in Atlanta, Georgia. It has been a remarkable experience and I am thankful that the National Endowment for the Humanities took a chance on me, a first year teacher. This was an experience that I didn't even know I had the opportunity to apply for until 4 days before the due date. I figured out really quick the requirements for the trip, wrote an essay in less than a day and sent everything off in the mail. A month later I found out that I was accepted into the program and I didn't know at the time what that truly meant.

Tim Crimmons, Glenn Eskew, Akinyele Umoja, and Martha Battle made this week well worth it. Their knowledge on the topics they discussed with us was well done and always had meaning and went with our tours, or summed them up perfectly. All of the teachers that I had the pleasure of meeting and working with made the workshop more fun. What a great group of people. It is a blessing when you get the opportunity to talk with other educators and work with them to come up with lesson plans or just discuss the content. The amount of information you can learn from them is everything a first year teacher needs and more.

I am leaving a bit overwhelmed, especially in the department on how I will do this information justice in my classroom. But, I am ready to get back and start working on the drawing board and figuring out how I can bring this into my 7th and 8th grade classes. Knowing that my students last year didn't know much about the Civil Rights movement until we discussed it, I've decided it needs to be talked about more. With everything that is going on in modern society right now, I feel students need to learn and understand the past in order to understand the significance of it now in the future.

Well, it's time to get on Pinterest and start looking up ideas for school. With it starting in less than two weeks, I am freaking out a little bit. I wonder if the first day of school will ever get easier?

Ready to be home for more than a couple of days and looking forward to my bed.
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"Injustice Anywhere is a Threat to Justice Everywhere."

Today was the last full day of learning. Auburn Avenue served as the main road for our tour today. The Sweet Auburn Historic District is a historic African-American neighborhood along Auburn Avenue. The name was coined by John Wesley Dobbs, the grandfather of Maynard Jackson, calling it the "richest Negro street in the world" in the 1950s. Our first stop on our walking tour for the day was Big Bethel Church. The church was built in 1847 and is the oldest predominantly African American congregation in Atlanta. It is a gorgeous church with stain glass windows that still has services on Sundays every week and is also a meeting place for different things.

There were many cool things to see on Auburn Avenue but nothing will beat the places I saw that were well known areas where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr frequented. The first being the Prince Hall Mason's Building. King had his office on the second floor and there was a radio station that was right above him. Story has it that when he wanted to speak on the radio, he'd bang on the ceiling and the radio station would send the microphone out the window and down to his level in order for him to say whatever it is he wanted to say.

Continuing down the street we headed off to Ebenezer Church. Now, if you don't know what the significance of this church is, then you're not alone. Before this trip, I didn't really know much about it either. So I am here to tell you the history of this church, which is no longer in session at this location, but has moved a crossed the street and now has a larger sanctuary to accommodate the many patrons of the church. 

Ebenezer Baptist Church was built around the 1880s. One of the first pastors was Rev. Adam Daniel Williams. He was Martin Luther King Jr's grandfather. With his death in 1931, Martin Luther King Sr. (Daddy King), became the pastor and he would serve as pastor over the next 40 years. In these 40 years many things would happen. This is the church that Martin Luther King grew up in. Remember Lonnie King? He was baptized here. Gwendolyn Middlebrooks also attended this church, and still attends the newer location across the street. It would be here that Martin Luther King would have his funeral in 1968 after being assassinated. Nearly six years later in June 1974, while playing the organ, as she usually did on Sunday mornings, Alberta Williams King was shot and killed by a black man from Dayton, Ohio who decided that black ministers were a menace. A year later Daddy King would step down from being the pastor due to all of the tragedies his family had suffered. In 1999 when the new building opened across the street this building would see it's last sermon as they started here on that day and half way through everyone got up, walked across the street and finished their sermon in the new building. This day would be the last time it was operational as a church only. Now, it is a place where you can go and sit and listen to The Drum Major Instinct and look up at the alter where Martin Luther King Sr preached.

When we were finished with our tour of the church we walked next store and saw where Martin Luther King Jr and Corretta Scott King are buried. Their grave sits on a platform in the middle of a reflecting pool. Now, I have seen many grave sites on my tours of cities and towns, but this one was quite powerful and I just stood there and took it all in. 

The next stop on this emotionally impactful day was to see the birth house of Martin Luther King Jr. Our tour guide, Marty Smith, was amazing. He was very insightful and gave us a lot of good information about the house it's self. Martin Luther King's grandparents purchased the house for $3,000 in 1909 when Alberta Williams King was only 9 years old. Martin's parents moved in with them after they got married . Originally on his grandparents occupied the first floor and Martin's family occupied the top floor. His brother and sister were also born in this house. When they first moved in they didn't have a crib for Martin's sister, Christine, so they put her in a dresser drawer when she was first born. It's those little facts that were fun to hear from Marty. He also said that sometimes Christine herself will give the tours and say that the only thing that isn't original from the 1930s time period in her room was the doll on the bed. The reason the doll on the bed wasn't originally there is because if Martin and his brother A.D didn't have a baseball, they'd yank the head off her doll and use that instead. She also says that the kitchen was his favorite room in the house, other than on the days it was his turn to do the dishes, then he was no where to be found. These small little details proves that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was just your typical ornery, young, boy. Which is very humbling. I could go into more detail about the house, but I'm sure it would bore most of you. It was very fascinating to have the opportunity to walk through the house he grew up in and where he shared a bed with his brother, the smaller of the two beds. 

This house was quite a large house and you could say that Martin Luther King was part of the upper working class. When you look a crossed the street there were duplex style homes which represented the lower working class. Up to 9 people would live in one side of those houses. So Martin Luther King could look out from his porch and see such a diverse population of the black community that is said to have helped shaped who he became. 

"What'll Ya Have?"

We started out the day with a walking tour of downtown. We walked by where the Race Riot of 1906 happened. We learned about where the headquarters of the 1915 Ku Klux Klan was located, or at least was presumed to be located. On our walk we saw several different things related to Atlanta's history, or at least saw the spot where it took place. Rich's department store Clock was were many people would meet up in town, it is also at this site where Lonnie King and Martin Luther King met on the bridge for their sit in.

Next stop was Georgia's State Capitol building. This is where we had the pleasure of meeting and listening to Gwendolyn Middlebrooks speak. Gwen was one of the students that went along with Lonnie King during the Student Movement of the 1960's. She went to the all-girls school Spelman, which was located right next to Morehouse. She started out her speech by saying that she had known Martin Luther King, but the way she said it sounded like she had only met him a few times. After listening to her for a little while, you came to realize she actually knew the King's very well and her stories about him humanized him and made him relatable rather than just a public figure. Gwen used to drive him around and she described his car as a beater, with scratches and even a hole in the floor. She would babysit for the King family, she remembers one night specifically, she was babysitting and all of a sudden she saw that the cross outside the window was burning. Members of the Klan had come to send a message. To be at the King's house when something like this happens, I can't even imagine how I would have reacted, but Gwen, was scared but calm while she called Daddy King to figure out what she should do. She also talked about lighter times, she had Martin Luther King's car while he was out of town, so her and her girlfriends went out to get burgers and fries and bring them back to Spelman. They had a curfew and were going to be late, so they were driving as fast as they could to get back in time. All of a sudden the road was narrow and another car tried to pass, Gwen ends up grazing three separate cars, she "unethically" kept going back to Spelman. When they got back and checked the car, she couldn't even tell where she hit the other cars because the car already had so many scratches on the side, it was hard to tell what she had done. That got a laugh out of all of us. Hearing stories of Martin Luther King from his family life, rather than the political side made him seem like any other person.

Lunch was at The Varsity. It was a large restaurant and you order up at the registers before trekking through the place to find a seat. When you head up to the register, you better know what you want because all of the servers start asking you, "What'll ya have?" They have chili cheese dogs, burgers and fries. When we went to have a seat (we didn't listen to the instructions of the third room back) we found this room that had all school desks in the room. Since this is a conference for teachers, we thought it was a little ironic that there were all school desks in this room, so we ended up sitting there and enjoying our food.

Right after lunch, we headed over to the National Center of Civil and Human Rights. This was a very powerful museum. It reminded me of when I had attended the Holocaust Museum in DC. Everyone in there was very quiet and taking everything in. It was very interesting to me to see several of the things I had just had the opportunity to talk to my students about. It was fresh in my mind, so it was really interesting to see information on The Little Rock Nine, Orval Faubus and the Jim Crow Laws. The next area of the museum was the most impactful. There is a section where you sit in a diner seat, put on head phones, place your hands on a counter, and close your eyes. It is a recreation of what might have happened in a sit-in. In your ear, you hear someone calmly saying you've made it, you're doing just fine. As this persons voice disappears, you start to hear a bunch of people talking, almost as if you were in the diner. Next comes, the banging of the chair. The shouts. Someone screaming in your ear, calling you names. Bang. Bang. Bang. Yelling. Shouting. Whispering nasty, evil things in your ear. I know this doesn't even do the actual sit-ins justice, but just getting a little taste into what it must have felt like for those who sat there, you realize how powerful those moments in our history really are. Overall, this museum was a speechless experience and I'm so thankful to have walked through it. It really left you thinking and opened doors for a conversation, which I can't wait to have with students.

"Wanna Go to Jail With Me?"

Lonnie King, what an incredible character. I had the privilege of hearing him speak yesterday on the green in between Clark Atlanta and Morehouse campuses. He was part of the Student Movement during the 1960's and headed up the sit in on 15 of March. Lonnie knew Dr. Martin Luther King personally, even being baptized by Martin Luther King's father. One day he called up MLK Jr. and asked him, "wanna go to jail with me?" The two of them ended up getting arrested together during the sit in. Having the chance to meet someone that was this close with Martin Luther King was an honor and very cool. He talked a lot about the 60's movement and all the things he was apart of trying to desegregate restaurants and diners. Lonnie was even part of starting the newspaper Atlanta Inquirer which he staffed.

While we were on Morehouse Colleges campus we had the chance to see where Benjamin Mayes was buried, he was one of the most influential presidents of the college and was there while Martin Luther King Jr. attended school. Morehouse College is an all-male, private school that is historically a black school in Atlanta. It was a gorgeous campus to walk around and see.

For lunch, was another stop at a Southern Soul spot, Busy Bee. When we were in the process of ordering, I asked our waitress which cobbler I should get, Blackberry or Peach. She went on to tell me that we will get to that after I order my meal, but I wanted it first, she was flustered and told me she would just pick one for me and to go ahead with my ordering. She was great, her choice ended up being great, peach cobbler was deeply appreciated. I ordered the fried catfish and boy was that delicious food. All in all, it was a great stop along our tour.

The Fox Theater has a very dynamic history. It started out in 1928 as the home of the Atlanta Shriners organization. They tried having it look as though it were a mosque. Their ideas were very extravagant that they quickly ran out of money to finish the building which brought William Fox, of Fox Enterprises, in to help finish the construction. In 1929 on Christmas Day, The Fox Theater opened to a sold out crowd. Through the years it ran well, always doing movies and life productions. The people of Atlanta rallied together when there was talk about demolition and were able to save this beloved theater. During the time of segregation, African Americans had a separate entrance to the theater and had to walk up 93 steps on the outside of the theater in order to watch a show. This was the "Colored Section" of the theater, where the conditions of seeing a picture show or live performance were less than ideal. Having a chance to walk up those 93 steps on the outside of the theater to get to the top section of the theater, really gave me an appreciation for what people of color had to go through during segregation in order to watch a show. The Fox Theater has a done a wonderful job of keeping up with the preservation of the theater and has only made a few minor changes to modernize the place. They have even kept the restrooms up in the original "Colored Section" simple and the ones on the lower floor, more lavish and extravagant to preserve what it originally looked like. To this day they still have over 250 shows a year. Too bad I leave on Thursday because they are doing a showing of Rocky that evening in the theater.

First day in Atlanta

Being in Atlanta has been an experience so far. Ive learned so much already. Our first day we got in an checked into our rooms and then went out to check the area around the school. We are right in the middle of downtown Atlanta. The conference is being held by Georgia State University, and they have accommodated us by letting us stay in their dorm rooms here on campus. They aren't the most luxurious of places to stay, but it seems to add to the experience of staying with 3 other teachers and getting to know them along the way. There are a total of 36 teachers from all over the United States at the conference. Such a great way to network and even have conversations about how things are working and what is different in all these different schools. The one thing that seems to be a common theme for all of us teachers is the fact that we want our students to learn more about the history of the Civil Rights Movement.

Yesterday was our first day out in Atlanta and what a full day it was. It started with breakfast at Waffle House, up the street from where we are staying. It's Waffle House, so it wasn't all that special, but it was cool to find out that Waffle House started in Atlanta, Georgia. We didn't eat at the original but cool nonetheless. At 8:30 our day started with a lecture from Wendy Venet. She had quite a lot to say and her lecture was all about "Slavery and Freedom in Civil War Era". In the time of 1860 Atlanta was the Gate City to the South. It was a huge railroad hub during this time frame. We learned about a man by the name of Roderick D. Badger who was owned by his father. His father was a White farmer and mother a slave. While living with his father, he learned the trade of dentistry from him and went on to be a Biracial dentist in Atlanta, one of the most popular at the time. Later in the morning we went on to Oakland Cemetery and actually saw where this gentlemen was buried. It was nice to hear the history of his life and then see where he was buried.

Oakland Cemetery had different sections when it first opened in 1850. One section was for the slaves and another section for the burial of Whites. This was back when they segregated cemeteries. They later moved the slave section to the "Colored Section" of the cemetery. This cemetery is also where most of the soldiers that fought in the Confederacy, named and unknown, are buried. Margaret Mitchell is also buried in Oakland Cemetery. If you are unfamiliar with who she is, she wrote Gone With the Wind which is a Civil-War era novel. Later in the day, we also got a chance to see the apartment she lived in while she wrote the novel. She was recovering from an ankle injury and her husband had been lugging loads of library books back and forth for her to the point where he ended up asking her to write one, instead of him having to keep bringing her books. This was around 1926 and would be her last book.

Once we left Oakland Cemetery we headed towards Morris Brown College, which happens to be where Atlanta University got its start. The Stone Hall building on Morris Brown College (which was originally Atlanta University) was where W.E.B Dubois took a professorship in 1897 in history and economics. He was a very powerful member of the African American community that in his writings made head way into the sociology and history of the U.S.

Lunch was at Mary Macs Tea Room, which was true Southern food. It was built in 1945 and is the last tea room of sixteen in the Atlanta area. The food was outstanding and true southern style, fried green tomatoes, fried chicken, sweet potatoes, collard greens, and banana pudding. We ended our day with Piedmont Park, where Booker T. Washington made his speech at the Cotton State Convention.

After we got back to Georgia State and had a few talks and lectures, we had pizza for dinner while watching the movie Driving Miss Daisy. Overall, it was a great day, very long and tiring, but a great day of information.