(upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to "Generation Rising".

I'm your host, Anaradis Rodriguez.

For the past 22 years, the Gordon School's eighth grade class has embarked on a civil rights trip to Georgia and Alabama as a capstone to their study of the civil rights movement.

For four days, the students visit historic sites, meet with veterans from the 1950s and '60s efforts, and they learn from activists working for change in their communities.

Tonight I'm joined by students Mac Berube and Amaya Felder and their eighth grade humanities teacher and civil rights trip coordinator, Viva Sandoval.

Mac, Amaya, Viva, thank you so much for being with us.

- Thank you for having us.

- Of course.

- Thank you.

- Viva, let's start with you.

How did this trip come about 22 years ago?

- Mm-hm, this trip was made possible by a Gordon legend named Lynn Bowman.

She was the first Black woman to be hired at Gordon.

She was the first Black woman to be in a position of leadership at Gordon, she was the assistant head of school.

And she recognized that while it was important that our students learn about the civil rights movement in the classroom, that that experience was limited in the ways that students could truly understand what it was like, you know, to be part of history and part of the legendary change makers.

So she conceptualized the trip and thought it would be even more impactful if after we learned about it, we could go meet with the people that actually did the things down south.

And it took a lot of convincing at first, but eventually everybody was on board.

And 21 years later or 20 years later, I got to join the party.

And it has been the capstone experience of the Gordon School ever since she established it and something that every student looks forward to.

Whether they're in kindergarten or a seventh grader, everybody knows about the trip and talks about it.

So it's pretty epic getting to lead the trip as myself, - This is what I'm learning, talking to Amaya, Mac.

Amaya, you tell me you've been at Gordon since you were in nursery school.

- Yes.

- And early on, you knew about this trip.

- Yes, I was- - Tell us about that.

- I have an older sister that went to Gordon and she would always talk about what she's learning about and I was learning about things like that.

It's always been like a way, like a pathway that they send you on with the curriculum and it just caps off right there.

- Yeah, when did you first first start learning about civil rights?

- Hmm... - About the movement, was it like third, fourth grade?

- It was very young.

- Really?

- I can't really say a certain grade, but it was, it's just kind of thrown into our curriculum, just like a little, "Oh yeah, that happened" and then it's, then we will go deeper as we get older as we're the more we're able to handle it.

- Yeah, because it is a lot of sensitive and really challenging information to take in as a human being that this actually happened in in this country, right?

- Absolutely.

- Mac, you said the same thing.

You started in Gordon in the sixth grade and you said you knew about this trip from the moment you started classes there.

- Yes, like one of the first things I was told about from like my grade and the grades above was like how they went on this amazing like trip and how we're gonna go in eighth grade and I was just so excited because I barely heard anything about it before in my old school, we didn't really do trips like that.

And it was just amazing to hear about that and it was kind of motivating too to like push me to learn more because I was like, oh my god, I'm gonna learn so much stuff and I wanna be prepared for it.

- Yeah, and, Viva, Amaya mentioned that you prepare students leading up to the trip.

How does that work and how do you prepare for the trip?

- We study the civil rights movement, but not just the traditional civil rights movement of the fifties and sixties, we actually start the curriculum in eighth grade for our civil rights curriculum at Reconstruction, so just after the Civil War.

In seventh grade, they learn about the institution of slavery and they leave off like right with the Civil War.

So my curriculum picks up in 1865 and we start with Reconstruction and we basically trace American history specifically through the lens of Black Americans and both their activism and resistance to their activism and resistance to their ability to claim their rights as American citizens.

And we kind of just work our way through different movements and different parts of history, some which are extremely heavy and violent and difficult.

And it takes a lot of very careful planning on my part to ensure that students are getting depth and truth, but also making sure I'm not saturating the curriculum with too much trauma.

And it is a delicate balance, but one that is incredibly impactful because when they do go down south, they're exposed to all of it and it is much more... Immersive, and so I think it's really helpful that they have this background.

And we, you know, we get to study things like the Harlem Renaissance, which is rich and beautiful with art and music that offsets, you know, our study of things like Jim Crow and that legal and social system that was so oppressive.

And we study the great migration and then we eventually make our way to the more traditional civil rights era with the Montgomery bus boycott into like the sixties, which is just dense and rich with movement building and organizing.

And I think I, I just wanna give them plenty of opportunities to understand that every social movement has huge strides of progress, but it's also met with immense resistance, and the civil rights movement was no exception.

And so it's, you have to get comfortable knowing that the history's complex and sometimes it is very unsatisfying that certain things, you know, you're constantly striving toward, the movement leaders and followers are striving towards a certain goal, and it can be hard to learn that some of those goals have still not been fulfilled yet.

But it's also incredibly motivating to understand that those same activists that were working in the sixties continue to do the work today.

And they've only been joined by more and more people that are working on that same movement.

And to ensure that every American is getting their basic needs met and also has access to what they need and that their rights are being upheld and protected.

- And something you mentioned off camera is that the purpose of this also engages the students once they get back into their own communities.

And we'll touch on that in just a bit, but I wanna talk about the destinations.

Why do you pick certain destinations and what were the destinations this year?

- We, so our primary hotspots are Montgomery and Selma and we have a little bit of time in Atlanta, but those are really like the hotspots of the civil rights movement.

You know, some of the biggest action and some of the most public and well-known moments of the civil rights era happened in those places, whether it was the Montgomery bus boycott or the Selma voting rights March.

You know, these are places where history was changed and where American history happened.

And so I just think it's so powerful that the students get to literally walk in the footsteps of the people that came before us and that those people that are actually continuing to do this work.

And we get to meet with activists like Linda Lowery, for example, who was the youngest marcher to complete the march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

She actually started when she was 14 and she turned 15 on the march.

So when she began the march, she was the same age as most of our students.

And to get to sit down with her and listen to her story and then immediately following listening to her story, we walked the Edmund Pettus Bridge and literally walk in the footsteps of her and her sister, who we also meet with, JoAnne Bland.

It's just, there's nothing like it, you know, to hear from the people that lived it.

But we also meet with activists that came a little bit later in the movement.

You know, like Michelle Browder, we meet with her who's an incredible sculptor and activist and she talks about her experience growing up in the eighties.

And so we're able to see very clearly the line that connects the history to the present.

- Yeah.

- And I think that's also a really powerful aspect of the trip.

- This, it is very powerful and I wanna hear from you guys about your experiences and where you got to visit.

You usually, you know, hear about the voting rights march and you see pictures of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but then to be actually walking along the bridge, what was that like, Amaya?

- For me, it was an amazing moment that I've been waiting for a very long time.

'Cause my sister, she got to lead the line and I remember seeing that picture, it's like on the wall in my house.

And it was amazing to be able to do, not only walk in my sister's footsteps but walk in the same place that all of those activists and really important people walked.

- Yeah, what was your takeaway, Mac?

What was your experience like being in Selma?

- First of all, wow.

- Yeah!

(all chuckling) - That place- - It is wow.

- That place was amazing and just meeting all those people and then walking on the Edmund Pettus Bridge where like thousands marched, especially on the same exact side that they did, that's just, it was so powerful and it was so motivating.

Like I just felt like something was like passing through me almost, like just a different like mindset, I just felt... 'Cause you can always talk about it and like hear about it in class and hear it from other eighth graders, like older ones.

But actually experiencing it, that's just something you can't even put in words how like incredible it was to even do.

- Yeah.

- Just amazing.

- It's a visual experience, right?

- Mm-hm, yes.

- You feel it.

Was that the same across your peers with your peers?

What was the energy like for them, you would say?

Whoever wants to answer.

- It was, I would say similar.

Like I feel like when there were important moments, everyone was just like in trance.

Like when we were talking with Michelle Browder, everyone was silent and we were like, our eyes were like locked on Michelle Browder like... 'Cause we were so like in it.

Like we were just like fully embodied in all this like information and just like activism.

I just feel like we all, it was a great bonding moment for all of us 'cause we all were feeling like the same emotions at like the same time.

And I feel like there's no better way to do that than on a trip, learning the same thing at the same time.

- I love that, I love that, a bonding moment.

- Yeah.

- That is, so, Amaya, you mentioned that being in Selma was significant for you and your family.

What did your family think of your experience and did you call them that night?

I know you guys were walking around with binders, taking notes, so you actually got to write down what you were feeling in real time.

- Yes, my mom was so excited to hear about it.

She was like, "Did you guys walk over the bridge yet?"

And I was like, "Yes, we did today."

And it was just amazing.

My sister was at the house, she came back from college and she was so excited to hear about how I felt in the moment 'cause she had experienced that and she was so excited to hear what I had to say about it.

- What were other special moments from the trip?

You got to accompany them.

Do you go down by plane, do you go down by bus?

I know Selma, I mean Montgomery and Atlanta are not too far from each other.

It's probably like a ride from here to New York or Connecticut.

What was that like?

- Well, as you can imagine, going on a plane with 35 eighth graders (Anaradis laughs) Is a little crazy.

(all laughing) But we have a really good system where we have what are called family groups.

And so each chaperone usually only has to really be mindful of a group of four or five, which makes it much easier to manage.

But so we fly down to Atlanta and then we connect with the bus driver in Atlanta and then we stay with that one bus and we drive to Montgomery and to Selma.

And we actually stay the first two nights in Montgomery.

And then the last night, we stay in Atlanta before returning.

- What was your takeaway from being surrounded by the students?

I mean, you've done it before.

Anything particular in this trip that stood out to you?

- Absolutely, Michelle Browder was legendary.

- Who is she?

Tell us about her.

- She is an artist and activist, she's a sculptor and she is just such an incredible woman.

She has so much charisma and so much fire.

But she's also has such a loving like motherly energy and she feels like, she feels very familiar with the way that she acts around the young people.

But we actually went, she created this tour company called More Than Tours, which is focused on educating people about the history of Montgomery, you know, the complicated and difficult but also incredibly informative history that Montgomery has, especially in relation to the slave trade in America and the ways that like our national economy was kind of built.

And Montgomery was one of the centers where wealth was created early on.

And so her tour company is focused on educating people on that history.

And also she's focusing especially on the history of gynecology because in Montgomery, the famously known Marion J. Sims, who was known as the father of gynecology, what is lesser known is that he conducted experiments on enslaved women in order to make the strides in the field that he did in ways that were unimaginably cruel.

And so she actually did a project on the women that he experimented on when she was, I believe it was in college, she talked to us about that?

- Mm-hm.

- And her professor had said that her project was too Black and she ended up not even getting to finish her studies there because of the friction that was caused due to this project.

So she said that that lit her fire and her passion to study that history more and to bring that history to life.

So she created the sculpture garden, which we got to visit too, which has these massive beautiful sculptures that honors the three women that were experimented on.

And so rarely do you get to see sculpture that is like this scale and this intricate.

But then to speak with the actual artist about her own work and to hear her talk about the little nitty gritty details and the significance of this piece of metal or that name was just so captivating.

But before she talked about her art, she just spoke to us about her story.

You know, she is ultimately a storyteller and an artist in addition to being an activist.

And you know, she told us at one point on her pathway to arriving where she was at now, she was at a crossroads where she could have gone down a path where, you know, she stopped enjoying school and her teachers were not very supportive of her.

Some of them were quite racially prejudiced and said harmful things to her.

And so she was angry and frustrated and you know, really at a crossroads.

And she told us that her father told her, "You can choose art or you could choose," you know, like the justice system, not in a positive way.

Like, "You can go which direction, "are you gonna funnel your anger "into to people and to fighting?

"Or are you gonna funnel that anger "into creating and into art and activism?"

And she chose art and to just like then see her work next to us while she's telling us this narrative, this arc.

- Yeah.

- It was just like... - I can see why it's such- - Mesmerizing.

(laughs) - An impactful interaction with the students.

Any other special highlights or moments for you, Mac, from the trip?

- For me, it was going to the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Museum.

The Equal Justice Initiative was created by Bryan Stevenson, who's like my idol.

(all laughing) He's amazing, I love him.

But that was just amazing 'cause like Michelle Browder, there was like art pieces and different sculptures, paintings, like, it was like a vast majority of different kinds of art pieces.

And then there was like little signs that described them and what they meant and like their true meaning behind it.

And it was great because even in there, like there was like a thing you could go to where you could call with like an inmate, not a real like in person but, and you could hear their story and you could hear how the criminal justice system treated them and like the injustices that they went through.

And I just feel like that was so cool 'cause it was essentially like a video except it felt like you were actually calling them.

Like you were there with them, looking at them, but you weren't.

But it truly felt like that, and I just think that was like crazy, like to- - [Anaradis] That stood with you, that stayed with you.

- Exactly, and then after that, right next to it, we went to this restaurant called Pannie-George's, I think it was called, and they sold, this is kind of off topic, but they sold the best fried chicken I've ever had.

(all laughing) And 'cause like, you know, we've all went to like KFC or something before, right?

(all laughing) - This is not KFC.

- Exactly, but then you go to the south and you have like real authentic fried chicken, like- - [Anaradis] Yeah.

- That, I feel like that just brought the whole experience like of the Legacy Museum and just like, it was amazing.

(all laughing) - And the culture, you got to experience the culture too.

- Yeah.

- What about you?

Any other special moments you wanna share with us, Amaya?

- I would say EJI, the Equal Justice Initiative as well.

Just the ways that they incorporated technology into a museum and how it also tied in past and present.

It was amazing, the museum walks you through a timeline of like the transatlantic slave trade into mass incarceration today, and it was...

It was amazing to see how it, like all of those things, all of those events lead up to how we live our lives today and how these stories are still happening and how it transforms.

- I'm sorry, but I cannot believe I'm talking to eighth graders right now.

I just can't, like, I forget that I'm talking to, I mean you're 12 years old, right?

12, 13 years old maybe?

- 14.

- 14.

- Oh, okay, sorry, okay.

(Amaya and Mac laughing) What is your perspective now?

You come home, you have all these experiences and we'll talk about how you're putting them to work, (Viva laughs) with, you know, how they learn so much being at these historical sites.

But what's, do you have a new perspective that you wanna share with us about what you learned and how it changed you, maybe?

- Hmm.

(Amaya laughs) - Let's start with you, Amaya, giving back some time to think.

- I think it gives me context to how I experience life today.

I think it adds reasons why I see those news stories or why someone said that to me.

It gives me the historical context to my life today.

- That's wonderful, what about you, Mac?

- You put that like beautifully, honestly.

(all laughing) I just feel like everything's so much more different for like mentally, like now that I've... 'Cause I've always heard about it and all this stuff and then I got to experience it and that was just amazing.

And now I just feel like I can do so much more now that I've done that, now that I've actually experienced that trip, and like learned so much information.

Wrote in my journal that now I can keep and like read whenever I want.

Like I just feel like I have so much more like power to use in this world and so much more I can do to make change because of that experience.

- And you're starting to do that already, right?

- Yeah.

- That was a great, great explanation, thank you so much for sharing that insight.

You're starting to do that already.

They came back, so this trip was in April, right?

And now they're back and they're going to work in their communities with what they've learned at different places where you've identified need.

Can you talk to us about that?

- Yeah, their final unit in their eighth grade year is called Service Learning and they basically pick a specific topic related to our society in the ways that people are not getting their needs fulfilled, whether that's in the field of education or in food access and... Arts and activism, we have another category.

And so the students pick one of those topics that they feel really passionate about and then we connect them with different organizations, whether it's schools or community organizations that then will take the students for the whole first part of the day from usually about like 8:30 to noon and they'll get to work with those orgs and really just do whatever the orgs need and to help.

And so sometimes like that requires cooking, sometimes that requires working with young people.

Sometimes it's more nitty gritty, like making flyers or putting in data entries, you know, for a couple hours.

But it's really all in service of bringing greater access and using our skills and knowledge to give back more locally and to understand how everything that we've learned over the course of our entire humanities course, going on the civil rights trip, now returning to our own communities and seeing those themes in those through lines, how they impact us here in Rhode Island and how we're all connected through these different issues and struggle.

- Yeah.

- But also like activism and you know, just the fight for justice, it goes on and connects us everywhere.

- So many life lessons.

- Yeah.

- For such a young age, right?

- [Viva] Yeah.

(laughs) - Mac, you're at an elementary school.

- Yes.

- And Amaya, you're at Amos House.

- Yes.

- What's your impression so far and what are you looking forward to being part of?

- I'm with pre-K, I'm with special ed pre-K. And I feel like I can just really make a difference in my class and throughout the school because I think I might be going to a couple different classrooms.

I just think I can really make a change with this and I know we're gonna be doing like projects afterwards about it and I feel like it's gonna be great.

- That's awesome, I'm excited for you.

What about you, Amaya?

- I think, I'm working in the food industry and it was, it's just amazing to see like me cooking the food and then handing it out to people.

You get to see your impact in real time, like how many people showed up there, it's like...

It shows you how big of a problem it is that you wouldn't even have suspected.

Like the amount of people that just show up there to get food, it's amazing.

It feels so great to just hand that food to them and they're so excited.

- That's wonderful, I look forward maybe to checking in with you guys and later on and seeing how all of this plays out.

Viva, before, we only have a few minutes left, before we go, let's talk about, you know, the life lessons that I mentioned and this invaluable knowledge that they have.

As an educator yourself, what is it experiencing that and what do you notice that... You notice a transformation in them in real time.

- Mm-hm, this is a dream job, absolutely.

Like it has all the components that an educator can only dream of.

You know, whether that's having actual resources to see through, you know, these like ambitious goals, to be able to show students in real time the ways that our history is so connected, whether it's in Providence or in Atlanta, or in California where I'm from, you know, that all of this history is very interconnected and that, you know, for example, like Black history is American history and it's not this separate category, but it is integral to all of our understanding of America.

You know, that these activists of the 1960s, for example, a lot of people see this history as only Black history when this is American history.

And these civil rights activists were not only advocating for their own rights to be respected and upheld, but also for the rights of all Americans and their work has benefited all Americans.

So for me as an educator, getting to, you know, weave together all of these different stories and perspectives and different forms of media and engagement to educate my students and to really just give them the opportunity to think for themselves and you know, present them with resources and be able to ask them questions.

You know, "What do you make of this?

"How can you connect this "to our current society and problems?

"Or, you know, the struggles and injustices "that we're facing today?"

It's just a dream.

And to go on a trip like the civil rights trip, you know, a lot of the work is done for me.

Like I've done all the preparation, but once we go on that trip, it's really, they get to then, you know, create that learning for themselves by literally doing it and by being present and asking good questions.

But I could not imagine like a better situation to be in as an educator.

I think some of the big themes from my course that I focus on is this idea of equity and that, you know, with a country that has such a complicated history and such an unpleasant history at times, we need to understand that equity is the answer.

You know, for people getting what they need, we have to understand our history to understand how people are not getting what they need.

And I think one of my biggest focuses as a humanities and history teacher is that history informs everything in the present.

And the more that we understand our history, the more prepared we are to deal with the issues of the present that are so deeply informed by what has come before us, the activism as well as the hardships and the oppression.

And so the more we understand our history, the more empowered we can be to do something about it and to correct the injustices that continue to plague our society now, which feels so familiar, like echoes of the past.

And you know, our country is constantly fluctuating back and forth on certain issues.

You know, again, we're thinking about like our bodily autonomy and whether people have the rights or access to control what happens to their body.

And it feels like, you know, there's certain themes that appear on the trip that appear in the curriculum that have been consistently appearing in our national conversation for decades.

And so I feel like the more my students understand the history, then the more that they're able to do things in the present and to, you know, be a leader in these conversations about like, now that we're dealing with this right here today, what can we do about it?

They're so equipped to have those conversations.

- And they're empowered because- - Absolutely.

- Of those experiences.

I mean, Mac said it, you know, "Now I feel like I have the power "and the knowledge to continue "to work for my community," right?

And be a change, a change agent, an agent of change.

You guys are very lucky to have Viva as your teacher.

(Viva laughs) - Oh, yeah.

- Yes, it has been wonderful speaking to you all.

Congratulations on such a successful program.

Folks who may want to follow along with the students, I know you have it all up on your website, if you can tell our audience what that is.

- Mm-hm, yeah, we are findable at thegordonschool.org and we actually have a blog that documents each day of our trip.

- Okay.

- That you can read in depth that actually takes you through like all the little details.

That's really fun to look at with a lot of pictures.

- Yes, yes, yes, thank you so much for what you do, and thank you all for your time and for being with us here tonight.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you.

- Thank you for having us.

- We have run out of time, but I would like to thank tonight's guests, Mac, Amaya, and Viva.

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