dreamin4freedom

March on Washington 2013

We closed out our trip to D.C. with a final meeting to ruminate on the March experience. We participated in a group activity where we were each asked to stand in front of the one word that best described how we were feeling that night.  Those words were:

Contemplative

Satisfied

Excited

Curious

Humbled

Tired

Many felt Contemplative…not knowing what was next in terms of our reconciliation work. It was agreed that our being together for the trip, encouraging new friendships, and having authentic/courageous conversations was a small step…yet very meaningful. People were also Humbled by the entire experience and by the sacrifice made by those leaders who had paved the path for us.  To paraphrase Glenn McCray, “The previous generation had so little and did so much, while the current generation has so much yet has done so little.”  Some were Tired, exhausted by the walking and the tourism.  And also tired of the continued rhetoric and inaction of leaders (a remark that was made in relation to the speeches).  Some of us were Curious..the whole experience left us with questions about how to seek God’s truth in the reconciliation process. Some were Satisfied… satisfied that the trip and the march experience lived up to the hype. It was an amazing experience, never to be forgotten.

I must give a “shout out” to Suzzanne Lacey, Executive Director of Museum Without Walls, group leader extraordinaire, and organizer of the March on Washington trip.  She is an awesome woman of God and has found her ministry in planning historical trips like this. When Suzzanne visited our church several months ago and gave a brief description of the March on Washington trip, I knew immediately this was an experience I did not want to miss.  Suzzanne created an itinerary that included major tourists sites, without it being too much or causing us to lose focus on the real reason we were in Washington.  Thanks to her planning, the group was able to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. and FDR memorials, the White House, The Ford Theater, The Library of Congress, the historical U street neighborhood (where Duke Ellington lived), Ben’s Chili Bowl (where Bill Cosby has a chili dog named for him), the African American Civil War Museum and the American History Museum, where we honored to see “African American History 1863 – 1963”.  Suzzanne along with her assistant leader Bertram, were wonderful travel guides.  Suzzanne is the “walking queen”, and she will walk your feet off (she did make sure there was a Metro option for those who could not take the walking).  She and Bertram stayed calm while dealing with folks who sometimes were late, strayed from the group, or got off track from the original plans.  Suzzanne and Bertram did their best to keep us on schedule so we had the best D.C. experience possible. Thank you Suzzanne and Bertram!

About Museum Without Walls:

Museum Without Walls introduces participants of all ages to historical instances of intolerance and racism through the voices of individuals who experienced these events.

Educators can choose for their classes to participate in pre-scheduled tours or to work with Museum Without Walls staff to craft customized tour packages that meet their specific educational goals.

Educational tours take participants to significant historical sites of World War II and the Holocaust in Europe, and of the Civil Rights movement in the American South.

Regional tours educate participants on history specific to their area. For example, in Seattle, Civil Rights, the Central District Jazz Scene and Asian American history programs are featured in multiple programs. Future endeavors will include California and Museum Without Walls’ continued focus on stories around Japanese Internment and the immigration history on Angel Island.

Additional national and international locations and time periods can be scheduled by educators with Museum Without Walls staff.

As the cornerstone of all Museum Without Walls educational tours, people who lived the events share their personal stories.