Historical Black College Tour

The Memory I Wear

Watching TV, reading books, and looking at pictures cannot give you the full feeling of being present. You never know how big the Mississippi River is until you see it in person. You never know how people are affected by natural disasters or how it feels, until you walk into their environment. Most people don’t give time or thought to think about people on the other side of the country, or if things are really like what you read.

This being my first year on a historical black college tour was encouraging and rewarding. From Friday, March 21st – Friday, March 28, 2008 the Omega Boys and Girls Club’s Keystone program for young adults traveled down south to historical black colleges to experience being on a real college
campus. We went to Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia.

Traveling through states and colleges, I learned more about my history as an African American.
As time goes by generations stop thinking about what people suffered through and died for us to be where we are today. I was moved by being on historical college campuses that were once plantations, were at one time we were not able to get an education. I saw where a lot of grave sites and where bodies were held like Martin Luther King and his wife Corretta Scott and many others. Many of my peers and I never knew why everyone on the campus were so sensitive about people on the grass and making sure it looked nice. They kept the grass nice out of respect for some slaves who were buried on the campus because it was once a plantation. Walking pass the masters mansion I just wanted to go in and do what? I don’t even know. Anger rushed through me just knowing the man who lived in this house in front of me once owned a human being and he thought he was so much better than my kind of people as and African American that fact it me
personally.

I was inspired from what other people have done, such as a well known legend Martin Luther King Jr. and others who died for the rights we have today. We attended three museums all related to the history of African Americans. At the museums I saw pictures of famous people and things from slavery like whips, and small cottages slaves were forced to call home. The houses weren’t bigger than our school bathroom if not smaller. No one had privacy, some homes where even on train tracks that weren’t used anymore. I also saw the jail cell Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was held in, the difference between the water fountains for whites and the water fountains for blacks, I even saw a bus that was bombed while freedom fighters were still on it. Seeing people have so much anger to want to kill someone because of they’re color and wanting to work together and be equal made me want to cry. Many of my peers including myself never realized how much we really had to go through to get were we are today. Visiting the museums everything became so realistic, when you are not in that environment it is hard to even imagine being segregated or treated unequal because of our pigmentation. It was hard letting that reality hit that children and families were hung lynched murdered for something out of their control.

To help us understand a little more our team leaders put us into two segregated groups. Group #1 was treated as if they were white, and group #2 was treated as if they were black. We (Group #2) didn’t understand why we were being treated different walking around the college campus. Group 1 got to walk on the grass stand in the shade and answer questions first while we (Group #2) could not do or say anything until we were told. We were told to walk on the pavement, stand in the sun, wait until they (group # 1) were done asking questions and sit in the back of the bus next to the bathroom. During their demonstration I became irritated and annoyed and no longer wanted to participate so I refused to do what they said. In the end my only wanted solution was violence. Getting a taste of the past I could only admire people who fought and died for me more. After our little example we could relate to how people could have felt being treated unfairly living in a world where they did not matter and had no say so. Thinking about how slaves were treated and the way things would still be if people did not fight you start to appreciate people like Rosa Parks for the smallest thing as not moving to the back of the bus.

Everywhere we went everyone could tell we were from California, everything we did was different.
Some said I talked country, proper, white-washed and cute. I never realized there was so much more diversity in a black culture than just in Vallejo. Everywhere I went I made a new friend. We traveled down south and through my hotels I stayed at I met people from other states like New Jersey, Chicago, and other places, they treated me like a celebrity. Since they are so far away when they hear California they only see LA, “Hollywood”, and San Francisco and think we’re all gay from what they had seen on TV. They had never heard many of our music artists and danced very different. Just as they believed everything on TV so did I. Visiting New Orleans I didn’t expect to see anymore damage since the disaster Katrina was so long ago. I was there for only 1 night and saw enough to affect me for life. Entering the freeway I noticed hundreds of tents full of people still affected from the disaster, they named that part of town “Tent
City”.

Throughout the whole trip I will never forget the Mississippi River it brought tears to my eyes thinking about all the movies, pictures, and stories I have heard about slaves drowning trying to escape or murdered bodies found in the water. It held so much power and history. It makes me feel special to be the color I am today and to know my people died and fought for me! We as African Americans were once stripped of our pride and yet we still stand. No matter what is apart of me, I wear that memory.