The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968 (Photo – Brian Biery)
The Center for Restorative Justice (CRJ), housed in Pasadena’s First Baptist Church, is known for its trailblazing work in the arts of truth-telling, advocacy, and repair.
By Brian Biery
One way the Center advances these goals is through the Southern Pilgrimage (SP), an annual immersive journey to the South that offers participants opportunities for self-reflection, education, and lived experience. During the third week in June, 14 Pasadena-area community members traveled by bus to New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Memphis, and Montgomery to witness the enduring marks of racial hatred and oppression. For CRJ board member Miyoung Hammer, “The timing of the SP was remarkable considering current efforts to roll back and undo many of the key components of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.”
Personal Reflections and Motivations
The motivation to learn and grow in order to protect civil rights is powerful—strong enough for participants to leave family, work, and home for a week and join a group of strangers to hear the stories of persecution and prejudice from those with lived experience. For traveler Jeannine Bogaard, the trip offered a pathway to understanding our local history: “I realized that while I attended the PUSD’s integrated schools in the 1970s, we had not been taught the truth. The Eaton Fire brought this reality to light in a radical way and reinforced my interest in understanding the history of our community.”
For Dena Spanos Hawkey, the impetus to join the pilgrimage was to be able to share what she learned with future generations: “I always wanted to do a Southern Civil Rights tour to get a deeper understanding of the struggle for civil rights for African Americans. I wanted to have that so I can teach others, especially my grandchildren.” This year’s Southern Pilgrimage provided the opportunity to visit historical sites and speak with civil rights elders that would not have been available to her otherwise.
Witnessing Civil Rights History Firsthand
The experience included conversations with participants in the civil rights movement who faced threats of retaliation for every action they undertook. Speakers included those who battled Birmingham’s infamous Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Connor, during the Children’s Crusade. Survivors of the 1963 protests to integrate public spaces described the brutal tactics that Connor, with the police and fire departments, used to disperse the crowd of children. Fire hoses were turned on children as young as four years old, and police dogs were unleashed in an effort to intimidate them into stopping the march. Spanos Hawkey added, “I was most impacted by meeting the “living legends” who were personally on the front lines of civil rights activism in the South. Hearing from women who were part of the Children’s Crusade gave me a lesson in courage and determination.”
The group at the the Southern Pilgrimage (Photo – Brian Biery)
Pasadena’s Own History of Segregation
Pasadena also has seen its share of Jim Crow-era practices. One of the most visible was the Brookside Plunge’s “International Day,” which denied people of color access to the public pool for more than 30 years. In addition, the Pasadena Improvement Association worked in the early 1940s to convince white homeowners to place racial covenants on their properties to prevent people of color from buying homes in white neighborhoods. While Pasadena did not experience the same level of violent racial terror as Southern states, it still has a dark history of racism and exclusion.
Confronting Violence and “Making the Past Present”
The Southern Pilgrimage is emotionally and psychologically demanding. Each stop is filled with stories of racial violence and oppression, but also marked by signs of progress and resilience. Phil Hawkey, who joined the trip through his long-standing civil rights advocacy, observed, “I got a clearer understanding about how slavery was the foundation for the growth of the wealth of the United States. The tour revealed the resilience and tenacity of African Americans to overcome terrible cruelty and develop a culture that has become a valuable and integral part of the United States.” For the Center, this is the purpose of such pilgrimages: “making the past present,” so that participants are better prepared to confront racial injustice today.
To that end, the group visited the Medgar and Myrlie Evers National Historic Home in Jackson, Mississippi, outside which Medgar Evers was murdered in 1963. The bus also traveled to Money, Mississippi, the town where 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally tortured and killed; his body later dumped in the Tallahatchie River to hide the crime. Another stop was Memphis, Tennessee, at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The trip was emotionally heavy, shaped by the weight of segregation and violence, yet also etched by hope.
Lessons, Responsibility, and Ongoing Struggle
According to Hawkey, “The biggest lesson is the realization that the story is not only about African Americans; it is a story to help all of America value the contributions of African Americans and craft a path to a fully inclusive country.” And for Hammer, optimism comes from the continued resistance to racism and the intergenerational nature of that work.
Examples of intergenerational collaboration are evident in today’s racial justice movements. In Birmingham, former “Freedom Summer” participants are working with a young University of Alabama professor to create an archive documenting the efforts of Northern student volunteers who participated in 1964 voter registration drives. “What civil rights activists fought for in the 1950s and 1960s is still what we must fight for today, and the effort must be intergenerational,” Hammer said. “We have much to learn from our elders, and they need us to be the present-day foot soldiers.”
Many SP travelers described the experience as transformative. Sitting with “living legends” from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Children’s Crusade was especially powerful, as many of these activists remain engaged in advocacy today. CRJ board member Hammer noted, “The progress made at that time is not cancelled by current circumstances, but it is clear that the work is never done.”
Bogaard agreed that the people they met reinforced the idea that meaningful change requires sacrifice and sustained commitment. She added that even today these efforts remain essential to defend civil rights: “The ‘living legends,’ aka ‘Freedom Fighters,’ who have spent their entire lives fighting for equality and justice are role models for all of us. They are living proof that the work never ends. Patience, perseverance, and determination are required to make change.”
After the Pilgrimage: Action and Advocacy
After the trip, several participants expressed plans to take further action against systemic racism. Their efforts include supporting voter registration initiatives in other states through groups like Black Voters Matter and encouraging increased civic participation locally. Another objective is to challenge the narrative of a post-racial or colorblind society. Hawkey noted concern about federal efforts to “cleanse” history by obscuring civil rights struggles. Spanos Hawkey added that the experience motivated her to advocate for this history to be taught in schools and to oppose the removal of historical displays that depict injustice.
John Williams, executive director of CRJ, explained that the SP is designed to educate and equip community members to confront racial injustice. “By advocating for an unvarnished exploration of history,” Williams said, “we commit to equipping the next generation with the understanding of our collective past, the knowledge of alternate pathways, and the empowerment to be architects of a future distinct from the failures of the past.”
For Jeannine Bogaard, those goals were realized during the journey. “I will carry this experience with me for the rest of my life and can recommend it to everyone,” she said. “The only way forward is to understand the true history of our country and to take action.”
For many participants, that understanding includes confronting the roots of racism in society today, especially amid ongoing debates over civil and voting rights. As Miyoung Hammer noted, “Until we can eliminate the fundamental assumptions of white supremacy that proliferate in the marrow of our society, we will have to remain vigilant and active in the fight for justice.”
The Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, which examines the history of slavery, racial terror lynchings, segregation, and mass incarceration. It is sometimes informally referred to as the “Lynching Museum” because of its extensive exhibits on racial terror lynchings (Photo – Brian Biery)
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