| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE FEBRUARY 11, 2003 |
CONTACT: Jennifer Nathan 248-933-3851 jlnathan@umich.edu |
EXPLORE THE AMERICAN CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT | |
| ANN ARBOR, Mich.- On Thursday, February 20th, thirty University of Michigan students will head south to meet veterans of the American Civil Rights Movement. The course, Get on the Bus 2003, is sponsored by the University of Michigan, the defendant in an affirmative action lawsuit now before the Supreme Court. Students from Get on the Bus 2003 will spend spring break traveling through the south, returning on Sunday, March 2, 2003 in time for classes to begin. Now in its fourth year, Get on the Bus 2003 gives students the chance for a hands-on look at the history of the civil rights movement. This year's trip will make stops in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., the Mississippi Delta, Selma, Montgomery and Birmingham, Ala., and Atlanta, Ga. In the past, students have met with Coretta Scott King, Congressman John Lewis, Julian Bond, Dr. Bob Moses, and many others. Students have toured the Mississippi State Penitentiary (formerly Parchman Prison Farm), and marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, sight of the infamous Bloody Sunday of 1965. Students also take a three-credit academic course on the history of African-American resistance to racism, offered through the Center for Afro-American and African Studies. After returning, the students will engage in an extended service-learning project, sharing their experiences with the campus community, and teaching the Civil Rights Movement in area schools. Past participants of Get on the Bus 2003 have gone on to work as union organizers in Ohio, campaign strategists for Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, and served as interns in areas ranging from a civil rights law firm in the Mississippi Delta, to House and Senate offices in Washington, D.C. Get on the Bus is sponsored by the University of Michigan Center for Afro-American and African Studies. For more information before or at any point during the trip, please contact Jennifer Nathan, Director of Public Relations for Get on the Bus, using the above information. Journalists are welcome to travel with the class. Visit the Get on the Bus website at http://www.umich.edu/~onthebus/ for more information about this and past trips. | |