Dozens of Students in Mississippi to Interact with Civil Rights History and Leaders

This press release comes from the Sojourn Project

HATTIESBURG, MISS. – This weekend, dozens of high school students are in Mississippi to experience the Civil Rights Movement where it happened. The Sojourn Project is a program that connects students today to the Civil Rights Movement through a weeklong journey through the South, where they stop at key points to interact with the Movement’s leaders and landmarks.

The trip kicked off in Jackson on Saturday, March 31st, and will conclude in Memphis on Friday, April 6th. Along their journey, Sojourn students will meet with civil rights leaders to learn about their experiences as young activists, and how young people today can bring that energy to the present. Sojourn is life-changing for the students who participate -- since the Project's conception in 1999, over 6000 students and teachers have gone on Sojourn.

Students visited the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Saturday, and they will visit Medgar Evers’ House on Sunday. The Mississippi leg of Sojourn will conclude in Hattiesburg on Monday, where students will meet with Vernon Dahmer Jr.

Sojourn speakers and students are available for interviews throughout the trip, and there will be many opportunities for powerful, moving video. Sojourn’s Mississippi speakers include Minnijean Brown-Trickey and Vernon Dahmer Jr.

Who: Sojourn Project

What: High school students to visit Mississippi Civil Rights sites to interact with the Movement’s history and leaders.

When: Sunday, April 1, 8-10am - Medgar Evers House: 2332 Margaret W Alexander Dr. Jackson, MS

Monday, April 2, 10am-12:30pm - Students meet Dahmer family: Hattiesburg, MS

About Sojourn Project: Sojourn Project is a unique, transformative, and empowering academic immersion program that takes middle school students, 11th and 12th graders, and college students on a life-changing journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement through the American South. Sojourn Project’s holistic, educational approach incorporates music, text, and video into a rigorous curriculum that introduces students to historical sites, monuments, and museums. Most importantly, students are able to interact with the actors of the Movement themselves. To date, more than 6,000 students and teachers have participated in over sixty journeys.