Students Relive Selma’s History With Walking Classroom
Tents cover the ground outside of the Lowndes Interpretive Center just outside of Selma. It’s a site that once held marchers pushing for civil rights.
Now it holds about 75 students looking to learn from history.Â
“Dr. Martin Luther King, he had to fight for me to get to this point for me to go to school, for me to eat certain places for me to go drink from the same water fountain that someone else drinks from things like that,” said Phillip Scott, a student from Mississippi.
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Over the next several days, they’ll be doing their own march to Montgomery, all while learning about the events that led to the voting rights act of 1965.Â
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They’ll cover almost all of the 54 mile march to the capitol.
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That’s a part of history that Javarious Pittman, another student from Mississippi, is excited about.Â
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“The walk, I can’t believe they walked that far and I want to you know, see how it feels, all the cars rushing by you, people targeting you because you’re walking this long walk. I really want to see how it feels just to say outside. I don’t usually stay outside,” said Pittman.
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The event is put on by the National Park Service which oversees the interpretive center. They observe a lot of anniversaries, but they’ve never done anything quite like this.Â
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“Sesquicentennial, bicentennial, but really nothing like this nature, we’ve asked students to participate and they will be walking for quite a bit of the length. So this is a first for us. to have students involved in this nature,” said Don Wollenhaupt, Southeast Chief of Interpretation.
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With students coming from around the country, it was hard to select the few who made it to Alabama this weekend.Â
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“The students were selected by essays they had written about the march and why they wanted to march in this event. Also assistance from teachers and educators,” said Wollenhaupt.
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