A Family Civil Rights History Road Trip
Amidst an abundance of snacks, we squeezed in some valuable lessons on justice.
We did it.
Over the course of the last year, we’d been toying with the idea of taking the kids on a road trip from New Orleans to Atlanta to learn firsthand about the civil rights movement and how it impacts our lives now. This past Spring Break, copious amounts of planning dabbled with touches of angst resulted in a moving and powerful trip that our kids (and adults, too!) aren’t likely to forget any time soon.
Over the course of the next few weeks, we’ll be delving into each stop on our journey, if and how we made it kid-appropriate (yes, Tabitha definitely left the kids with Adam to visit a few sites), and how it landed for our little ones.
But first, if you’re thinking of a civil rights history road trip, here are our top 6 recommendations along with an easy-to-understand itinerary.
PACK LOTS OF SNACKS AND TRAVEL-FRIENDLY ENTERTAINMENT! (yes, we’re screaming this)
Our kids are picky eaters and food is always a capital-T Thing when we travel. They’re pretty obsessed with apples and pistachios, though, so we stocked those in our travel bag. We also were big on letting them get books or small items at the gift shops of the places we visited. We’d like to say it was only because we wanted them to have mementos from the different locations but it also bought us a few hours of screen-free entertainment throughout the trip.
Give yourself space in your itinerary!
We did a semi-okay job of this. We followed a cadence of visiting a site, getting food and then decompressing with kid-centered down time (reading, pool, playground, etc). It’s important, as you and your kids are processing all this history and trauma, to take care of yourselves and allow yourselves time to rest and recuperate. We also gave ourselves the flexibility to move a site to a different day or even to (unfortunately) skip a site if needed.
Pay attention to big feelings!
Sometimes big feelings can be overwhelming when it’s your whole family in a tiny hotel room but big feelings need to be let out and when kids show them, it’s a sign they feel safe to express themselves. Especially on a trip of this magnitude and importance, give your kids space to talk with you about what they’re learning and the impact on them.
Plan food ahead of time.
Some of the places we visited had really amazing spots but their opening hours were different from what we’re used to. We found ways to plan around it with our picky little eaters (gas station pizza in Alabama, anyone?). Planning ahead for meals and researching things like opening times, etc can help you manage hangry children (and adults).
Center the people with lived experiences of marginalization.
Tabitha here: Adam had the benefit of visiting the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum when it opened in 2018, so he was adamant that I do that museum on my own. As a Black woman, I needed space to take it all in and process it at my own pace without having to chase after children and make sure they weren’t breaking things. Adam was absolutely right. The experience was moving (more on that in a follow up newsletter) and I was emotionally distraught from all of it so we pivoted those days to include extra processing time for me to move through. We have also talked to our kids about the lands the sites occupied, the Indigenous people and their connection to enslavement, oppression, and civil rights.
Support local Black-owned businesses.
From food to education to experiences to accommodations, we tried as much as we could to support local Black-owned businesses. This was more straight forward in some places but harder in others (because racism and capitalism exist everywhere). We also knew that supporting Black-owned businesses includes the folks that don’t have the social capital to name their work a business but still offered insightful and important segments of our trip. One highlight was meeting Columbus, who had a table at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma and shared powerful experiences and knowledge with us.
Now that you’ve got some pointers, here’s our itinerary.
Stay tuned for more where we delve into each of these sites.
Take care of yourselves, okay? Love up on those kids and have a good day.
Tabitha & Adam