Students to share experiences from service-learning trip to Selma

Students, faculty and staff from UW–Madison who traveled together by bus, following the route of the civil rights movement from Madison to Selma, Ala., are hosting a presentation and fund-raising event on Friday, April 16.

The group, as part of a campus-based and service-learning course sponsored by the Chadbourne Residential College (CRC) and the College of Letters and Science Anonymous Fund, spent two and a half days working at Selma’s National Voting Rights Museum & Institute (NVRMI).

The event, scheduled from 7:30-9:30 p.m. in CRC’s Main Lounge, will raise funds for the NVRMI building fund. Three civil rights veterans and continuing activists for social justice will speak: Joanne Bland, NVRMI co-founder, director and tour guide; the Rev. C.T. Vivian, Baptist minister, public speaker, author of “Black Power and the American Myth,” and member of the NVRMI Board of Directors; and Connie Curry, author, film producer, and an advocate for prison and criminal justice reform.

NVRMI, founded by survivors of the “Bloody Sunday” attempt to march to Montgomery (March 7, 1965), is dedicated to educating the public and preserving the history of those who participated in the civil rights movement. When the UW group visited Selma’s City Council chambers, Mayor James Perkins Jr. noted that “Selma has borne the burden of racism and race relations in the U.S. for nearly two centuries.”

A series of related events, all scheduled in CRC’s Main Lounge, will precede the April 16 presentation:

• “What Matters to Us and Why: From Selma to Madison and Back Again,” presented by students in the service-learning course. 7-9 p.m., Wednesday, April 14, CRC.
• “What Matters to Me and Why: Testimony From a Civil Rights Activist,” Joanne Bland. 4:30-5:30 p.m., Thursday, April 15.
• “The Intolerable Burden,” an award-winning documentary by Connie Curry. 7-9 p.m., Thursday, April 15. Curry will screen and discuss her film, which explores the failure of public education and the resulting fast track to prison, particularly for young black men.
• “What Matters to Me and Why: Building a Civil Rights Movement for a New Millennium,” the Rev. C.T. Vivian. 4:30-5:30 p.m., Friday, April 16.

The service-learning course was led by Steve Kantrowitz, associate professor of history; Mary Layoun, professor of comparative literature and faculty director, CRC; Tim Tyson, associate professor of Afro-American studies; and Scott Seyforth, senior residence hall manager, CRC.