Last week, students and faculty of Ashland University spent their spring break walking in the footsteps of history in the Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Birmingham, Selma, Atlanta and Montgomery.

According to Dr. Charles Neff, the executive director of the office of Christian ministry at AU, the trip took students to “the MLK Jr. National Monument in Atlanta; the Legacy Museum, Peace & Justice Memorial, Freedom Rides Museum, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and parsonage, Rosa Parks Museum, and the ASU Center for the Study of Civil Rights in Montgomery; the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Voting Rights Museum in Selma; and the Civil Rights Institute, Kelly Ingram Park, and 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.”

Prior to the trip, Medical Mutual of Ohio made a sizable donation that made the trip more affordable to students and allowed a total of 11 participants.

Among these participants was AU Trustee Gen. David Graetz, “whose parents were active in the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery and personal friends of Dr. King, Rosa Parks, and other Civil Rights pioneers,” Neff said.

After its success this year, there are plans in the works to make this trip an annual offering.

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Charles Neff