History’s Journey: On the Road to the Civil Rights Past, Day 2

On June 11, nine Pitt students set off on the 15th annual Returning to the Roots of Civil Rights bus tour, a nine-day, 2,300-mile journey crisscrossing five states. In addition to visiting sites associated with the fight for racial justice, students are hearing from men and women who participated in the movement.

Sunday, June 12
Day 2—Deep Impressions

These first few days of the trip have been some of the most inspirational days of my life. I’m an Africana studies major at Pitt, and I hope to spend the rest of my life engaged in social activism and education. In the King Center [in Atlanta], I stumbled across a very important quote by Coretta Scott King: "Struggle is a never-ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it every generation."
—Aisha Hughes, Pitt junior

We must question, we must dig deep, we must always seek truth.
—Ava Mosbacher, Pitt senior

Photo above: Pitt sophomores Krista Lee (left) and Kristen Sadler sit on the steps in front of the Atlanta, Ga., birth house of Martin Luther King Jr., who lived there from 1929 until 1949.

Below: Pitt graduate Andrew Muse (A&S ’16) stands with Juanita Abernathy, a civil rights advocate and wife of the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a friend and confidante of Martin Luther King, Jr. Juanita Abernathy, who was instrumental in virtually all of the era’s protests, spoke with Pitt’s students and other members of the bus tour during its stop in Atlanta.