The last twelve years in the United States witnessed the election of the first black president. They also witnessed the resurgence of white nationalism. America seems to be engaged in a new reckoning about race.  What’s the best way to understand this conflict? Religious history provides one helpful lens. Religion has always been at the center of America’s conflictual racial history. Religious defenders of slavery claimed the Bible justified the practice. But opponents of slavery, and advocates of civil rights, also appealed to the Bible to sustain their struggle for equal justice. More recently, religious scholars have explored the strange, regrettable convergence of Christian ideas with ideas of white supremacy. And conversely, theologians have shown that, at its heart, Christian faith is good news for the oppressed.

This program is an opportunity to think more about race and religion in the setting of some of the most dramatic events of America’s civil rights struggle. We will visit sites in Jackson, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma. These are the places where great heroes of civil rights confronted defenders of an old order of white dominance. These are the places where America’s claim to be a land of equal opportunity was put to the test. Together with visits to historic sites in each city, we will read and talk about texts that explore histories of religion and race, and contemporary arguments about race and society. This struggle continues.

View the itinerary and more below and use the Register Now button above to join us.

This program was custom designed to understand the ongoing conflict of racism through the helpful lens of religious history. This itinerary is subject to change. Travel demands flexibility. We will strive to balance adaptability with remaining on schedule. Please trust that, when it is not possible to follow the plan laid out below, your program leaders will work to find substitutions that retain the quality of this Study Travel program. Various details may be added or changed due to information obtained while making reservations, or perhaps on site, especially because of the weather. BLD indicate included group meals.

Tuesday, April 5                                        Arrive Jackson (D)
Make your own way to Jackson, Mississippi. At 5 pm we’ll gather in the Club Lounge for a cocktail and welcome from David and Ann, followed by a group dinner at the hotel, the Westin Jackson.

Wednesday, April 6                                 Jackson (B,D)
After breakfast, meet in the hotel lobby to walk just over half a mile to the new Mississippi Civil Rights Museum for a guided tour. This state-funded museum provides an honest and painful account of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi through a series of galleries packed floor to ceiling with photographs, texts and recordings. There are a total of eight galleries that branch off from a central rotunda that brings daylight into the museum. Inside the rotunda, an illuminated sculpture pulses and glows every 30 minutes (reminding you how quickly time passes at the museum) and gospel songs play. The idea is to begin and move, always staying left, from one gallery to the next one. The museum exhibits begin with the back story to the civil rights period – the European slave trade. From there the museum timeline moves through the Civil War, Reconstruction and the birth of Jim Crow, and then moves to after World War II with a harrowing room which focuses on Emmett Till. Woven through the galleries is a parallel record of resistance from activists like Medgar Evers.

Lunch on your own and some free time. In the early evening, we’ll hear from a guest speaker, and then have a group dinner at a local restaurant.

Thursday, April 7                                      Jackson (B,L,D)
This morning we’ll take our private motor coach for a 15 minute drive to the Medgar Evers Home Museum, located in the home where Evers lived, on Margaret Walker Alexander Drive in Jackson. Medgar Evers, the field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, was assassinated in the driveway of his Jackson home in 1963. That home was given to Tougaloo College and is now a museum dedicated to Evers’ life and the history of the civil rights movement. We’ll meet with Tony Bound, the curator for his home.

Then we’ll drive to Malaco Records, an American independent record label based in Jackson, that has been the home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, Benny Latimore, Dorothy Moore, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Marvin Sease, and the Mississippi Mass Choir. The first big hit on the Malaco label was Dorothy Moore’s “Misty Blue,” in 1976, but it was the unexpected success of Z.Z. Hill’s LP Down Home in 1982-83 that launched Malaco on a trajectory to become the dominant label in its field.  It defines the state of contemporary southern rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel, with more than 30 years of making black music for black people, focusing on local artists and songwriters. We will be meeting with co-founder Gerald “Wolf” Stephenson for a tour of the record company.

Continue on a short walk to Farish Street, which was the thriving center of African-American life in Jackson during the Jim Crow era. In recent years the street has fared poorly with boarded up buildings and vacant lots and a few lone businesses struggling to survive. Pass by the Collins Funeral Home where on June 15, 1963, a throng of 4,000 mourners marched from the Masonic Temple to the Collins Funeral Home Medgar Evers body was prepared for burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Stop by the Big Apple Inn where owner Geno Lee will grant us an exclusive opening and provide everyone with an opportunity to sample a “pig ear” sandwich or a smoked sausage sandwich. Geno Lee is the fourth-generation owner of the Big Apple Inn. His great-grandfather, Juan “Big John” Mora, who was born in Mexico City, arrived in Jackson in the 1930s, began peddling hot tamales on street corners and, by 1939, had earned enough money to buy a storefront on Farish Street, calling his new venture the Big Apple Inn, naming it after his favorite dance, the Big Apple. Today, the Big Apple Inn is known for its smokes and ears and for its service to the community.

Then we’ll enjoy lunch at Johnny T’s Bistro and Blues before continuing on to the COFO Civil Rights Education Center where we will meet with Dr. Robert Luckett, Director of the Margaret Walker Center and an Associate Professor of the Department of History at Jackson State University. As a Civil Rights historian, Dr. Luckett’s expertise is on the modern Civil Rights Movement and the African-American experience. As director of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University, Dr. Luckett has become an expert on Walker’s life and her experiences, especially as they related to the Black Arts Movement of the 20^th century. Joining the group will be Hezekiah Watkins who, at the age of 13, inadvertently became a Freedom Rider when he walked to the Greyhound Bus Station to meet the Freedom Riders as they arrived in Jackson.

Accompanied by Mr. Watkins, we’ll drive to the former Greyhound Bus station. This prominent site from the 1961 Freedom Rides against segregation has been lovingly renovated by architect Robert Parker Adams, whose architectural firm occupies the art deco structure today.

We’ll return to the hotel for a group discussion and some free time before dinner at Frank Jones Corner. After dinner enjoy a private Blues performance by local musician, McKinney Bluesman Williams.

Friday, April 8                                            Jackson — Memphis (B,L,D)
We’ll depart Jackson this morning in our private motor coach and head north, driving through the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta.

Our first stop is the B.B King Museum. From the cotton fields, street corners and juke joints of the Mississippi Delta came the blues. Considered by many to be the only truly indigenous American music, this form has influenced musicians worldwide and is deeply rooted in Delta soil. And so is the man who helped spread the blues as its foremost ambassador, Riley B.B. King. The Museum opened in 2008 to rave reviews and delivers an unparalleled experience. The exhibits include thousands of rare artifacts, award-winning films, computer interactives, and an incredible story of courage and the power of the human spirit.

Depart the museum and drive to Greenwood and the Museum of the Mississippi Delta. The museum was founded in 1969 at the crossroads of Delta history and art. The extensive collection includes artifacts related to agriculture, Native America, regional military history, and one of the Delta’s most extensive collections of regional art.

Then we’ll meet Sylvester and Mary Hoover, owners of the Hoover’s Store in Baptist Town. Mary Hoover will prepare barbeque ribs for our group lunch and, of course, her famous butter-roll, similar to a cobbler but without the fruit. Mary is a fabulous cook, owned a popular soul-food restaurant in the historically black Baptist Town neighborhood for nearly 30 years, and was involved in preparing the spreads for the food scenes in the movie, The Help. Lunch will be served in the museum.

After lunch drive a short distance to Baptist Town, which was established in the 1800s in tandem with the growth of the local cotton industry. Known for its strong sense of community, it is anchored by the McKinney Chapel M.B. Church and a former cotton compress. In blues lore Baptist Town is best known through the reminiscences of David “Honeyboy” Edwards, who identified it as the final residence of Robert Johnson, who died here in 1938.

Visit the small Back in the Day Museum which Sylvester has created. This community museum explores the African-American culture in the Delta. Sylvester will accompany the group on a 20-minute drive to Money where the first marker on the Mississippi Freedom Trail was placed at the remains of Bryant’s Grocery, the site associated with the murder of black teenager Emmett Till. The store is where Till is said to have wolf-whistled at white shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant in August 1955. The 14-year-old was kidnapped, tortured, and killed a few days later in a crime that helped set the civil rights movement in motion. It has often been called “ground zero” of the civil rights movement. Carolyn Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, stood trial on murder charges weeks later. After 67 minutes of deliberations, the all-white jury found the men innocent. In January 2017, Mrs. Bryant recanted her account of Emmett Till being “menacing and sexually crude” toward her.

Stop in Sumner at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center which tells the story of the Emmett Till tragedy and points a way toward racial healing. Specifically, the center uses arts and story-telling to help process past pain. Meet with Benjamin Saulsberry and learn of the apology resolution written by the community of Sumner and issued from the steps of the courthouse in which Emmett Till’s murderers were acquitted. After a decade of work from the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, they now invite you to join in on a call to action in your own community, recognizing a need to address racial injustices across America.

Group dinner at the Sumner Grill, which will be opened privately for us and is a perfect spot for a group discussion. Continue on to Memphis and check into the Hu Hotel.

Saturday, April 9                                       Memphis (B,L,D)
Depart directly from breakfast to the Lorraine Motel, now the home of the National Civil Rights Museum, where we’ll explore independently (no guided tour). The motel was bought in 1945 by Walter and Loree Bailey. Under the Baileys’ ownership it became a modest safe haven for black travelers and visitors who were welcomed, served home-cooked meals, and offered an upscale environment. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed at the motel numerous times and came again in the spring of 1968 to support a strike by sanitation workers. On April 4, 1968, he stepped out of Room 306 and talked to friends in the parking lot below. As King turned to walk back into his room, a bullet struck him in the neck, taking his life instantly.

The museum is filled with artifacts, films, oral histories, and interactive media which guide visitors through five centuries of history, from slave resistance to the numerous protests of the American civil-rights movement. A large white wreath hangs on the balcony outside Room 306 and it’s possible to look into the room which has been preserved to capture exactly what it looked like on that tragic day.

Across the street is the Legacy Building (the boarding house from where the assassin’s shot was allegedly fired) which examines the investigation of the assassination, the case against James Earl Ray, and ensuing conspiracy theories.

After a group lunch at the Four Ways, we’ll focus on Memphis’ music history with a visit to the Stax Museum of American Soul, which provides insight into the civil rights story set within the Memphis music scene. A fascinating exhibit traces the history of the Blues and its impact on American music. Here we will meet with Jeff Kollath, the executive director of the museum.

A mile north is the Slave Haven Underground Railway house where dark cellars, hidden passageways and trap doors were used by runaway slaves attempting to flee north to freedom. Built by slave sympathizer and German immigrant Jacob Burkle, this modest home tells the story of the Memphis slave trade and the Underground Railroad.

We’ll return to the hotel for a group discussion, and then walk to dinner this evening at Rendezvous for a BBQ Dinner. We have invited Scott Shepherd to join us. Mr. Shepherd, a former Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan in Tennessee, is now one of America’s most ferocious anti-racism campaigners, having turned his back on the KKK and made it his life’s mission to defeat racism.

Sunday, April 10                                        Memphis – Birmingham (B,L)
Depart the hotel for a three and a half hour drive to Birmingham. Upon arrival in Birmingham meet with Rev. Carolyn McKinstry at the 16^th Street Baptist Street Church. Carolyn was 14 and inside the 16^th Street Baptist Church when a bomb killed four young girls as they prepared to sing in their choir on September 15, 1963. More than 8,000 mourners, including 800 clergymen of both races, attended the funeral. No city officials attended. Visit the basement area of the 16^th Street Baptist Church (please note the main part of the church is currently undergoing major renovation work and is not open).

Across the Street is the historic Kelly Ingram Park, site of civil rights rallies, demonstrations and confrontations in the 1960s. Historic footage of police-attack dogs and high-powered fire hoses remain indelibly imprinted on the memories of those who saw the images on televisions and in newspapers around the world in the 1960s. Sculptures throughout the park are vivid depictions of police dog and fire hose assaults on demonstrators, many of them children.

We’ll invite Carolyn McKinsty to join us for a group lunch nearby. In the afternoon we’ll visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, an interactive museum that tells the story of the Civil Rights Movement. The museum features a rendition of a segregated city in the 1950s, as well as the actual jail cell door from behind which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. penned his famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” The institute is also home to an expansive archive of documents from the Civil Rights Movement and nearly 500 recorded oral histories relevant to the period.

We’ll check into the Redmont Hotel and after settling in, have a group discussion. Dinner is on your own tonight.

Monday, April 11                                      Birmingham – Montgomery (B,L)
This morning drive about 2 hours to Selma and stop outside of the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of Malcolm X’s address in support of voting rights, Dr. King’s eulogy for Jimmie Lee Jackson, and Jackson’s funeral. Three marches from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama began from this church, which also served as the temporary headquarters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Continue to the Selma Interpretive Center for a conversation with Foot Solider Annie Pearl Avery, whose civil rights work spans decades. Annie Pearl joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at age 16. When Freedom Riders were mobbed in Birmingham in May 1961, she went to the bus station to see what was happening and offer assistance. She could not get through police barricades, but she met SNCC organizer Wilson Brown who invited her to attend a SNCC conference in Georgia. Eventually she became SNCC’s project director for the voter registration effort in Hale County, Alabama. Annie Pearl will discuss with us her experience in the civil rights movement, as well as her experience walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965: Bloody Sunday.

We’ll walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where beginning on March 21, 1965 marchers walked for five days to Montgomery camping during the night in the fields of farmers sympathetic to their cause.

After a group lunch at the Coffee Shoppe, we’ll drive the 54 miles between Selma and Montgomery and follow the marcher’s route that helped to change American history. The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail commemorates the events, people, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama. While participating in the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965, St. Olaf alumnus James Reeb ’50 was murdered by white segregationists, dying of head injuries in the hospital two days after being severely beaten. Three men were tried for Reeb’s murder, but no one was ever convicted.

Upon arrival in Montgomery we’ll check into the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and have a group discussion. Dinner is on your own tonight.

Tuesday, April 12                                      Montgomery (B,L,D)
This morning we’ll travel to the Dexter Parsonage Museum, the house in which Dr. Martin Luther King,  Jr. was living in when it was bombed on January 30, 1956. It was that day that Dr. King made the personal commitment to non-violence.

We’ll finish the morning at the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. Created by the Equal Justice Initiative, the museum looks into the history of racial injustice and the narratives that have sustained injustice across generations. The museum is situated on a site in Montgomery where enslaved people were once warehoused. A block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from an Alabama dock and rail station where tens of thousands of black people were trafficked during the 19^th century.

After a group lunch at EJI’s newly opened restaurant, we’ll visit the new National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The memorial is the nation’s first dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence. The Memorial for Peace and Justice was conceived with the hope of creating a sober, meaningful site where people can gather and reflect on America’s history of racial inequality.

We’ll end the afternoon with a briefing by staff members of the Equal Justice Initiative, an organization committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

We’ll return to the hotel for a group discussion. Group dinner at Saza’s Restaurant.

Wednesday, April 13                               Montgomery (B,D)
Visit and discussion at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. The church has a history of community service that spans well over a century. On October 3, 1887, the first registration of students for Alabama State University (then the Normal School for Colored Students) was held in the lower unit of the church. Over the years, it has served the community through the use of its facilities as meeting place for many civic, educational and religious groups, and through its human resources. Much of Montgomery’s early civil rights activity – most famously the 1956 Bus Boycott – was directed by Dr. King from his office in the lower unit of the church.

The church’s original name – the Second Colored Baptist Church – was later changed to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church after Market Street was renamed Dexter Avenue in honor of Andrew Dexter, founder of the city. In 1978, the name was changed to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, in memory of its twentieth pastor, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who led the congregation from 1954 to 1960.

Lunch on your own and free time. Farewell group dinner at Central’s Restaurant.

Thursday, April 14                                    Depart Montgomery (B)
Individual departures.

David Booth earned his B.A. in the comparative study of religion at Harvard College in 1978, and his Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago in 1984.

He came to St. Olaf in 1985 to teach in the religion department and the Paracollege. Following the closure of the Paracollege, he was the first director of the St. Olaf Center for Integrative Studies. Until his retirement in 2020, he taught courses in religion and in several of the college’s interdisciplinary programs, including The Great Conversation, the Science Conversation, Environmental Conversations, and the Women’s and Gender Studies program.

His scholarly interests focus on the dynamics of religious communities that ostracize internal enemies. He has published on the world-views of Christian witch-hunters, who once rationalized the persecution of unassimilated women as “handmaids of the devil.” He has published on world-views that today dehumanize and disparage sexual minorities and gender non-conformers. During the run-up to Minnesota’s historic 2012 vote on marriage equality, he published several brief pieces presenting the fruits of scholarly discussion about theology, sexuality, marriage, and justice. He has taught courses about religion and environmentalism. And in recent years he has taught about the idea of “race” as a problem for theology, including attention to Civil War era arguments about the Bible and slavery, and more modern arguments about the concept of race and the historical role of Christians in propping up the ideology of white supremacy.

Ann Tobin graduated Oberlin College in 1975, earned her M.A.T from Duke University in 1977, and her J.D. from Northwestern University in 1981. Until her retirement in 2018, she practiced law related to health care and focused on privacy and compliance. She also served on the boards of OutFront Minnesota, and the Headwaters Foundation for Justice.

Ann and David are the parents of two grown daughters. They are canoeists, bicyclists, and tennis-players.

This program may not have quite as much walking as our overseas programs do. You should still be capable of walking up to a mile at a time and several miles each day, of keeping pace with an active group of travelers on long days of traveling, of dealing with the emotional highs and lows that can occur when encountering and discussing difficult issues, and of traveling with a group for several hours each day.

Hotels will be 4-star along the likes of Radisson or Marriott.

Covid Information

​As a condition of participation in this program all attendees must have received a COVID-19 vaccine and received a booster shot at least 2 weeks prior to attending the program. The Centers for Disease Control now say all adults can and should get a booster shot once they are six months past their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or two months past their single Johnson & Johnson dose. If, by departure time, you are not yet 6 months past your second dose or 2 months past your single J&J dose, you will not be required to have a booster. Because changing conditions may result in additional or different participation restrictions, we will strive to keep you promptly informed of any changes resulting from the ongoing pandemic.

Inclusions and exclusions vary from program to program. Please read the following information carefully.

This program is packed with guided tours, conversations with community leaders, museum and site visits, and group discussions. The itinerary is spread out in such a way that more group meals are included than usual in our programs.

The program fee is $5,250 per person. Based on double occupancy, it includes discussions led by David Booth, assistance by Ann Tobin and a full-time tour manager, accommodations, breakfast daily and group meals as listed on the itinerary, admissions for group activities, ground transportation during the program (except airport transfers if that’s how you arrive at and depart from the program), and gratuities to group guides, drivers, and meal servers. For single occupancy, add $900.

Transportation to and from the program is not included. Participants are solely responsible for all expenses not specifically included in the program fee. Examples of excluded expenses are: Transportation to and from the program • Travel insurance of any kind • Beverages at most group meals • Gratuities to housekeeping staff • Laundry • Dry cleaning • Phone charges • Room service or other items of a personal nature • Expenses incurred during free time or non-group activities • Lunch and dinner, unless specifically included on program itinerary • Items not specifically listed above as included.

A $500 per person deposit is required upon registrations. See full Payment and Refund Schedule below.

This schedule is based on payments St. Olaf College must make to program vendors to guarantee group rates. We highly recommend that you purchase additional trip cancellation insurance at the time of registration to recover your payments should you need to withdraw from the program.

Because of ongoing uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, it is possible that a program could be postponed. In such a case, while we will strive to make full refunds when we can, there are certain expenses that may not be refunded to either St. Olaf or the participant.

Deposit due:                          $500 upon registration
Refund if you cancel:          Full refund ($500) until December 31, 2021. If the deposit is made after December 31, 2021 there is no refund.

Final payment due:             January 1, 2022
Refund if you cancel:          None, unless the program is full and your place can be resold

Cancellations must be in writing.

Make a Payment

Read the Release and Waiver and Terms and Conditions.

Prepare for your adventure by checking out a variety of resources, including frequently asked questions, general health information, safety overview, and more.

this program is an official go

​Feel free to purchase your flights​ (if you’re not traveling by car)​. We strongly recommend you consider adding flight cancellation insurance to that purchase. Here are some additional notes:

— The program starts and ends in ​different cities.
— You should time your travel to arrive in Jackson, Mississippi by mid-afternoon on Tuesday, April 5. We will start the program at 5 pm with cocktails and introductions, followed by a welcome dinner.
— Your can depart Montgomery, Alabama any time on Thursday, April 14.

Trip Information Sheet

Dear Travelers! Dear Scholars!

We began to think about this trip in the fall of 2019.  So much has happened since then.  The murder of George Floyd.  The subsequent uprising and the many reactions to the uprising.  The trial of Derek Chauvin.  The politicization of scholarship and teaching about race in America.  The spate of laws seeking to chill scholarship and teaching about race in America.  The emergence of critical race theory as bogey-monster in the minds of conservative commentators.  The (often menacing) arguments at school board meetings.

All these developments suggest we might shift the focus of our trip somewhat.  Rather than focus narrowly on the role of religion in the brave struggle for civil rights, let’s try to understand the current arguments about race.  Let’s get down to some basic questions.  What is critical race theory?  What is systemic racism?  What is white privilege?  What, after all, is “race”?  What role has religion played in the history of race in America?  I think having this conversation while we visit the sites of heroic struggle will be very rich.

Here are some texts I enjoyed reading with students in the years just before I retired.

Jeannine Hill Fletcher, The Sin of White Supremacy (2017) 978-1626982376
Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground (2015) 978-1626981096
James Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (2013) 978-1626980051
These are all works of theology joined to political and historical analysis.  Any one of them would be useful background for our conversations.

I have also found The 1619 Project immensely illuminating.  The original collection of essays in the New York Times was eye-opening.  Then the criticisms by historians were helpful.  Then the indignant rejections by conservative activists exposed fault lines in America’s reckoning with race.  All of this is good to understand.  An article by Jake Silverstein, in the November 9, 2021, New York Times, “The 1619 Project and the Long Battle Over American History,” offers a good summary of the controversies.  Silverstein discusses why it has been so challenging to retell American history by placing the experience of black people, especially enslaved black people, closer to the center of the story.  The 1619 Project has just been published in an expanded, book-length form.

I value the many “self-help” style books about race.  None of them is perfect.  All are subject to critical response.  Nevertheless, they help us recognize, and maybe start to root out, institutional and personal vestiges of white supremacy.  One that stands out in the national discussion is Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility (2018) 978-0807047415.  It inspires vicious angry reviews from many readers.  (I just read several on Amazon!  To a remarkable degree, the negative reviewers misunderstand DiAngelo’s arguments, and complain that they felt personally attacked.  Ironically, they embody “white fragility.”)  In any case, DiAngelo crystallizes many concepts that white Americans will need to wrestle with if we are going to fulfill the promise that “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .”

Finally, if fiction is more your style, I recommend Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi.  It is a beautiful, multi-generational account of the families of two west African sisters.  The sisters are separated in childhood.  One remains in Africa; one is transported to America.  Across many generations we see their descendants’ lives unfold in contrasting contexts.  The book is a great, fictionalized way to get a feel for the experiences of black people in America.

The movie about James Baldwin, “I Am Not Your Negro” is a fine introduction to Baldwin’s devastating critique of America’s race problem.

Obviously, none of these suggestions are “prerequisites” for our time together.  Maybe some will be enjoyable, if challenging, reading before next spring.  As the time of our trip draws nearer, I will suggest some briefer readings as shared experiences for the group.

All good wishes.

David