‘Dream Marches On’ Youth Tour Begins Monday
Hundreds of students left Montgomery this morning to retrace the steps of foot soldiers from 50 years ago. Students from all over the country are a part of ‘The Dream Marches On’ youth tour and today, the group is spending time in both Selma and Tuskegee.
This week is all about commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march.
And some students traded in a spring break on the beach for one here in Alabama to learn about that march.
These students are getting a lesson outside of the classroom on the Voting Rights Movement of 1965.
“One bus is headed to Tuskegee and the other bus is headed to Selma,” says Anita Archie, who coordinated the Dream Marches On youth tour.
“We have kids as far away as the University of Arizona, that’s a part of this tour.”
Students from middle and high schools will retrace the steps of those who marched and fought for civil rights 50 years ago. And they’ll be doing it with actual foot soldiers, like Dorothy Wright Pleasant, who was a student at Carver High School in 1965.
“We really left Carver without permission and joined the march and I think what is different now is maturity for us,” she says. “And seeing now all the advantages the students have that we didn’t have.”Â
The students say they’re grateful for the opportunity.
“I just want to see where they marched, where everything happened,” says 7th grader Anndretta McCall.
“They marched for my safety and for my history so I could grow up and have a better future,” says 8th grader Courtney Cotton.
Senator Quinton Ross is joining the tour and says he believes it’s important for the students to learn their history.
“It was the young people that were out in front during this time that really helped galvanize the communities and people all over the country to really focus on what was happening in Selma.”
When the students get to Selma and Tuskegee, they’ll take part in active discussions about student involvement in the original Marches.
The Dream Marches On Youth Tour is happening all throughout this week. The students will head to St. Jude on Wednesday and participate in the last leg of the march to the capitol.
For more information about the tour, visit http://dreammarcheson.com/
