Wednesday, October 8:
Opening Session | Hope, Power, and Movement in the Face of Adversity: Connecting the Past to the Present
Our Fall Member Meeting & Learning Tour grounded us in the history of slavery, racial oppression, economic theft and dispossession, and abuses of the law enforcement and judicial systems and their legacies, which continue to shape today's public policy and civil society. Alongside this history, we lifted up heroic stories of people who persevered, led, and continue leading toward a more just future, and consider the connections and lessons for our own places.
The session highlighted stories of parents and providers who discovered and wielded their power for transformation and policy change to better meet the needs of families, reflected on parallels between the past and present, and considered what history teaches us about the tactics and structures that support and sustain power building and movement, and how those lessons can inform our own places and work today.
Discussants (Bios)
- Facilitator: Dawn Owens | Director, Montgomery Bold Goals; Owner, Owens Professional Strategies
- Rochelle Wilcox | Co-Founder/CEO, For Providers By Providers (4PXP), Louisiana
- Kenita Williams | Chief Operating Officer, Southern Education Foundation. Related read: Leadership for Equity in Trying Times, Grantmakers for Education Member Insights by Kenita Williams.
- Senator Kirk Hatcher | Alabama State Senate, 26th District; Head Start Director, Montgomery Community Action
Wednesday, October 8:
Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Legacy Sites
Recognizing that the legacy of slavery and anti-Black racism in this country has entrenched racism into the very foundations of this country, resulting in oppression and disinvestment in Black communities, and stratification of class and caste perpetuating systemic oppression for all marginalized people and communities, we devote4d this afternoon to on-your-own time to explore three EJI sites that shape one powerful experience.
- At the EJI Legacy Museum, travel through 400 years of American history – from enslavement to racial terrorism, to codified segregation, to mass incarceration. This critically acclaimed Legacy Museum features first-person historical accounts, interactive content, cutting-edge technology and a world-class art gallery.
- Set on a six-acre site, The National Museum for Peace and Justice is the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to the victims of racial terror lynchings. The outdoor memorial uses sculpture, art, and design to contextualize racial terror and its legacy today.
- Build on 17-acres on the banks of the Alabama River, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park explores the lived experience of enslaved people in America. The park's narrative journey begins with a brief overview of Indigenous history in America, acknowledging their presence and contributions before European arrival. Word class scultptures, images and stories connect this history to the transatlantic slave trade and the subsequent enslavement of Africans and their descendants, highlighting the shared experiences of displacement, violence, and resilience.
Related:
- Publication & Map: Slavery In America, EJI overview and map of Montgomery Slave Trade Sites
- Video: Just Mercy, We need to talk about an injustice, Bryan Stevenson – Equal Justice Initiative TED Talk (23 minutes) In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
Thursday, October 9
Morning Site Visit Track 1: Care of Children as a Core Justice and Power Building Value (Selma, AL)
During this site visit experience, we journeyed to the historic Selma, AL, to explore the care of children and families as a core power and movement building value, and hear first hand accounts of the role of children and women in the civil rights movement.
In Selma, we visited the McRae Gaines Learning Center, a high-quality early childhood education center for children 12 months through second grade. Rooted in the belief that "education must not simply teach work—it must teach life," McRae-Gaines serves Selma’s working families with affordable, high-quality education and tailored supports.
At the Center, we saw the persistence of providers and parents to ensure their children have the opportunity to thrive. We meet Sadie Moss, Director, McRae Gaines Learning Center, who as a child saw the violence of Bloody Sunday at the Edmond Pettus Bridge, and since then has remained in Selma and dedicated her life to “make Selma the place I knew it could be”.
Next, we visited the future site of Foot Soldiers Park, adjacent to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of the brutal Bloody Sunday beatings of civil rights marchers. Foot Soldiers Park provides creative on-ramps to civic fieldwork, and works to foster, support, and amplify a democracy that is just and inclusive. Here, we’ll be joined for discussion Ms. Barbara Barge, civil rights leader and Selma Foot Soldier, who a young person was a first hand witnesses to the 1965 Voting Rights March from Selma to Montgomery.
Weaving together the impact of the civil rights movement on the community, and on children and families, we’ll hear firsthand what made it possible for children, young people, and their families to keep moving forward in the face of incredible adversity, and lessons that can be applied to multi-generational efforts to build power and movement for the care of children and families.
On the return trip to Montgomery, our final intended stop was Lowndes County Interpretive Center, for a self-guided opportunity to explore stories of significant events that occurred in Lowndes County during the Selma to Montgomery March. The museum includes an exhibit on the establishment of “Tent City,” which housed families dislodged by white landowners in Lowndes County as retaliation for registering to vote. This National Park site was closed due to the government shut down, but we encourage attendees to explore related online resources about the stories this and other interpretive centers lift up, learn more about the Civil Rights Trail.
Discussants (Bios)
- Dawn Owens, Owens Professional Strategies (Facilitator)
- Camile Bennett, Founder and Executive Director, Project Say Something
- Sadie Moss, Director, McRae Early Learning Center
- Barbara Barge, Tour Guide & Civil Rights Leader, Foot Soldiers Park
Related:
- Article: History came to Selma, and then left it behind, The Tico Times, 2015
- Documentary: Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power - First person accounts and searing archival footage tells the story of the local movement and young Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) organizers who fought not just for voting rights, but for Black Power in Lowndes County, Alabama.
Thursday, October 9
Morning Site Visit Track 2: Movement Building for Economic Justice (Montgomery, AL)
During this site visit experience, we explored the economic violence on Black communities that accompanied the civil rights movement, and the people and places that shaped a movement for economic justice in this nation.
First, visited the Dr. Richard Harris House, the home of the grandson of John W. Jones, Alabama State Senator during Reconstruction. A registered pharmacist, Dr. Harris owned and operated Dean Drug Store. In May 1961, he opened this home to 33 Freedom Riders challenging interstate bus segregation who were harassed and attacked at the Montgomery Greyhound Bus Station upon arrival. In the days following the attack, Harris’ home served as a haven for the Freedom Riders while martial law was declared in the area. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the Civil Rights Movement met at the Harris House to develop a strategy for continuing the rides. Here, we met Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery, Richard Harris’ daughter, who will share personal stories and reflections from her childhood during the civil rights movement and the role her family played.
Located in what once was Montgomery's historically African American business district, the Harris House was also a stop in the Green Book, an essential travel guide for Black Americans in an era of segregation cemented into the American legal system through Jim Crow laws. Through personal discussion with Dr. Harris Montgomery, and a walking tour of the neighborhood with Valerie Smedley, Tours of Montgomery, attendees learned about the gentrification that has erased the district's unique cultural identity and fabric and consider the impact of inequitable economic policies on the community over time.
Next, we visited the Rosa Parks Museum for main wing tour and exploration of the Montgomery bus boycott. And the movement behind it. Centered on Parks’ story and its place in the Civil Rights Movement, the museum includes artifacts, images and stories of the movement leading up to the bus boycott, and the economic retaliation against the Black community for their participation in the boycott including self-organizing carpools against terrible odds including insurance companies denying auto-insurance and banks denying loans to Blacks providing carpools during the boycott. The museum concludes with an exhibit featuring the Dean Drug Store, Montgomery's oldest African American drug store which served as a meeting place for bus boycotters to organize.
Finally, we visited the Freedom Rides Museum, to learn more about the movement that made history by challenging the practice of segregated travel through the South. In 1961 groups of volunteers calling themselves Freedom Riders crossed racial barriers in depots and onboard buses. Freedom Riders, black and white, male and female, none of them older than 22, stepped off a bus at the Montgomery Greyhound Station on May 20, 1961. They were prepared to meet mob violence with non-violence and courage. They prepared farewell letters and wills. Their goal was to help end racial segregation in public transportation. And they did. Through personal stories and images, we explored the passion and circumstance that positioned these young people to be leaders in the civil rights movement.
Discussants (Bios)
- Nikita McClain, Hayes Street Consulting, Founder I Principal Strategist (Facilitator)
- Valda Montgomery Harris, Associate Professor, Alabama State University
- Valerie Smedley, Tours of Montgomery, Owner
Related:
- Book: Just A Neighbor: A Child's Memoir of the Civil Right Movement, by Valda H. Montgomery
- Documentary: Freedom Riders., From May until November 1961, more than 400 black and white Americans risked their lives—and many endured savage beatings and imprisonment—for simply traveling together on buses and trains as they journeyed through the Deep South. Deliberately violating Jim Crow laws in order to test and challenge a segregated interstate travel system, the Freedom Riders met with bitter racism and mob violence along the way, sorely testing their belief in nonviolent activism. (On the PBS documentary site: Find ways to access the documentary, watch a 2-minute trailer, read the transcript and find profiles of Freedom Riders).
- Video: Just Mercy, We need to talk about an injustice, Bryan Stevenson – Equal Justice Initiative TED Talk (23 minutes) In an engaging and personal talk -- with cameo appearances from his grandmother and Rosa Parks -- human rights lawyer Bryan Stevenson shares some hard truths about America's justice system, starting with a massive imbalance along racial lines: a third of the country's black male population has been incarcerated at some point in their lives. These issues, which are wrapped up in America's unexamined history, are rarely talked about with this level of candor, insight and persuasiveness.
Thursday, October 9
Morning Site Visit Track 3: Legal Advocacy and Judicial Strategies for Achieving Social Justice (Montgomery, AL)
During this site visit experience, we explored advocacy and legal actions during the civil rights movement which played out in Montgomery and Alabama, with wide reaching impacts to safeguard Black citizens, families and communities across the country, and the connection to present day challenges.
First, we visited the Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) Civil Rights Memorial Center, one of Alabama’s premier civil rights sites which honors the martyrs of the movement. The SPLC uses lawsuits to challenge discriminatory practices, laws, and policies, and to hold individuals and organizations accountable for actions that violate civil rights. They target hate groups and white supremacists through civil litigation. They also engage in class action lawsuits to benefit broader communities and achieve systemic change. Their litigation focuses on areas like voting rights, children's rights, economic justice, immigrant justice, and mass incarceration. Here we’ll explore connections between past and present-day policies and movements for racial equity and economic and social justice. Here you will see, and have the opportunity to sign, the Wall of Justice, a multicolored, digitally displayed names of more than half a million people who have visited the CRMC and made a personal decision to work for justice in their own life.
Next, we visited the Rosa Parks Museum for a main wing tour and exploration of the Montgomery bus boycott and the movement behind it. Centered on Parks’ story and its place in the Civil Rights Movement, the museum includes artifacts, images and stories of the movement leading up to the bus boycott. At the intersection of economic justice, power and movement building, and the role of community leaders in moving policy and change, we’ll learn more about Rosa Parks and other community leaders, advocating for others and taking part in legal and advocacy work to represent others who feared speaking for themselves.
Finally, we visited the Judge Frank M. Johnson Institute, to explore the role of the judiciary system in building movement and power. Established in honor of Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr., a federal judge who, in his words, merely “did his job”. Case after case, including the case of Rosa Parks, which challenged bus segregation, and the case allowing the historic Selma-to-Montgomery March led by Dr. King, were filed in Judge Johnson’s courtroom. Believing in the words of the United States Constitution as interpreted by the Supreme Court, Judge Johnson stood firm in defense of the Constitution and the civil liberties it guarantees despite death threats and intense societal pressure.
Cases heard in Judge Johnson’s Montgomery courtroom had wide reaching impacts across the country and established legal precedent for civil rights for Black communities as well as other marginalized communities. Here talked with Institute staff about groundbreaking and foundational cases in the civil rights movement, and the parallels between past and present.
Discussants (Bios)
- Teumbay Barnes, Cornerstone35, Principal Consultant (Facilitator)
- Thomas Rains, The Judge Frank M. Johnson, Jr. Institute, Executive Director
Thursday October 10
Reproductive Justice: The More Up Campus & Mothers of Gynecology Monument
We’ll concluded our day with a visit to More Up Campus and the Anarcha Lucy Betsey, Mothers of Gynecology Monument. The monument is a bold tribute to enslaved women subjected to painful medical experiments without consent or pain relief.
The Monument is part of the transformative work of artist and activist Michelle Browder, honoring the sacrifice of these women who changed the world only to be forgotten by it. Here, we learned about Michelle and her team’s work, including providing wellness pods in rural areas, training doulas, organizing national convenings for health professionals, and plans for a community health clinic and birthing center. Through this work, they honor the courage of of overlooked heroes, confront past injustices, and transform the narrative around maternal health and reproductive justice in the Deep South.
Discussant (Bio)
- Michelle Browder, I Am More Than, More Up Campus, and Mothers of Gynecology Monument, Founder and Director
Related:
- Video: Standing Tall, Honoring the Mothers of Gynecology, The San Francisco Standard
- Article: Subjected to Painful Experiments and Forgotten, Enslaved ‘Mothers of Gynecology’ Are Honored With New Monument, Smithsonian Magazine
- Article: Activist Michelle Browder Buys Site Where J. Marion Sims Experimented on Slaves, Montgomery Advertiser
Friday, October 10, 2025
Solidarity Rooted in Abundance: Building Power & Movement in Our Communities
We began envisioning what a learning tour to Alabama might look like some time ago, focused on where child and family needs are greatest – the South is home to nearly half of all Black children in the U.S.; extreme disparities in child poverty, maternal outcomes, and barriers to basic needs and economic opportunity in southern states.
We couldn’t have predicted the level of disruption we would be facing now—attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion; anti-immigrant policies, strategies of oppression gaining momentum across the country. These are not new attacks or sentiments, but their resurgence demands renewed commitment and solidarity among those who care deeply about young children and families.
Real solidarity—especially across lines of race, class, and citizenship status—requires more than empathy. It calls for honest reflection, a willingness to confront painful histories, and a reexamination of what it truly means to be an ally. It also requires us to cultivate abundance in our mindset, in our relationships, and in our actions. Scarcity has long been used as a tool of division. Individualism has been lauded over relationships. But transformation begins when we choose connection, collective care, and a mindset rooted in possibility.
In this closing discussion, we’ll consider what is needed to move forward, build movement and be in solidarity with our communities, and how we can use our influence and to advance the work within our organizations and spheres of influence.
Discussants (Bios)
- Teumbay Barnes, Cornerstone35, Principal Consultant (Facilitator)
- Lenice Emanuel, Executive Director, Alabama Institute for Social Justice
- Tania Jimenez, Executive Director, Asheboro Latinx Services
- Daniela Rodriguez, Executive Director, Migrant Equity Southeast