About the tour

Dr. Charles Collyer and Dr. Pamela Zappardino, Co-Directors ​with Bernard LaFayette, Jr., Distinguished Senior Scholar-in-Residence, Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
present a historical and educational civil rights tour.

Join us on the Zepp Center's annual Civil Rights Tour, with stops in:

1. Atlanta, GA
2. Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, AL
3. Pearl River and Philadelphia, MS
4. Montgomery, AL
5. And back to Atlanta, GA

We will meet at the Atlanta Airport (Southwest and some other airlines fly there fairly cheaply!) early on Thursday morning, January 2, and will be back there to catch our flights home on Sunday, January 5. Return flights should be booked for 5 pm or later. In between...well...more will happen in four days than you can imagine.  

You will ride through the Deep South on a bus...like the Freedom Riders did in 1961. As we head west from Atlanta we will cross into Alabama and walk in the paths of the Birmingham Movement, learning its goal and strategies, its successes, the tragedy of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, and how the efforts here led to the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Continuing on, we will stop in Tuscaloosa, AL and learn about the little-known Tuscaloosa movement and the events of Bloody Tuesday -June 9, 1964.

Our travels west will take us next into Mississippi where we will spend time in Pearl River learning about the history of the Choctaw (Chahta) Nation, before arriving in Philadelphia, MS, where at the height of Freedom Summer, 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared while investigating the burning of Mount Zion United Methodist Church.

As we turn again eastward you’ll experience the new Legacy Museum tracing the pathways from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, developed in Montgomery, Alabama by the Equal Justice Initiative to commemorate those who died in more than 4,000 lynchings throughout the US.

Back in Atlanta we'll spend time at the King Center Complex and Ebenezer Baptist Church, see where Dr. King was born and grew up, and have the opportunity to walk the streets of Sweet Auburn, wrapping up at the Center for Civil and Human rights, which focuses on the American Civil Rights Movement but expands the discussion globally, charting movements across the world.

You will talk to people who were there. The Civil Rights movement will come alive for you in a personal way and nonviolence will become much more than a word. You will see fascinating things and learn an amazing amount of stuff.    

But it is the people that you will remember most. We don't know yet who we will meet on our journey...but they will give you insights into the past, and inspire you in the present.

You will get to know Bernard Lafayette (worth the trip in and of itself!) and hear his first-hand accounts of the Movement. Bernard will have you thinking and laughing…and singing as well.

You'll find new friends on the bus...and new conversations that will continue long after you return home. This will be our 24th tour...and we are still as excited as we were about our first. Each one is unique...and we wouldn't miss it.

Join us! And feel free to pass this invitation along to family, friends, colleagues, students - anyone who might be interested. Follow the sign-up details on the flyer. And let us know you are coming as well.

And if the cost is a problem, don't let that stop you.  Let us know and we will help you brainstorm possibilities. The Zepp Center also has some scholarship money that we can make available to help you with expenses. We will work with you to make things happen.

So.... write back and tell us you'll be "on the bus" in January.

‍
TOUR COST: $496.00 per person.

NON-REFUNDABLE DEPOSIT: $200.00 due Nov. 10, 2019; balance due Dec. 9, 2019.

Make check or money order payable to DDK Tour and mail to:

3996 Brookside Parkway
Decatur, GA 30034

** Include your name, address, phone number and email.
         
COST INCLUDES:

• Transportation from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA. (Pick up 10:00 AM January 2, 2020 and return January 5, 2020, 4:00 PM. Book return flights for 5 PM or later.)
• 3 nights hotel (double occupancy) and breakfast
• Tour manual
• Luxury bus ground transportation
• Museum admission fees
• Speaker honorariums
• Expert Kingian Nonviolence analysis.

For additional information contact Dr. Charles Collyer, 401-258-9834 , Dr. Pamela Zappardino (paxwarthog@aol.com) or Charles Alphin, Sr., Senior Nonviolence Trainer, 770-981-8718.