Civil Rights Field Trip

I learned about the 16th Street Church. I had heard about the church and how it was bombed, but never knew how many girls were killed and that the bomb didn't blow up the entire church. I think hearing about the events in a classroom can often bore people. By going to the event, it allows us to connect with what we learned and when we have to remember the material for a test, we can easily say, "Oh I remember seeing that on the trip," and it will stick because there is a visual picture that is already present in our mind. Otherwise, by hearing it in a classroom, we are visualizing the image and stories in our head, and not always able to remember what we came up with. I don't think this experience changed my perspective on the Civil Rights' issues because I still feel like schools shouldn't be segregated and there shouldn't be racism towards any race. I just am horrified that our country, who speaks so much about diversity and being the melting pot, had a time in history where we were being absolute hypocrites. I think the field trip was worth it because I now have a more distinct view on what people mean when they say Civil Rights movement. I've always thought of it as the period of 1950s-1960s and that's when people started speaking up even more, but I never realized the extent of how much better life was for a white person. Actually going to the historic site makes it even more worth it because you are forced to pay attention. If you're in class watching a movie or going through a slide show, it is already tough to pay attention. On the field trip, you are responsible for doing the work and you have to. The visuals at the museum made it much more interesting because I wasn't just reading or seeing pictures, I felt like I was in the classrooms, on the buses, at the water fountains. What the museum had done was re-create the 1960s with stone people and allowed us to see what that time period was really like.