Reflections of a 5,000+ Mile and 18 State Road Trip
- Danyahel Norris
- Aug 5, 2022
- 13 min read
Updated: Apr 10, 2024
Two and a half weeks ago, the kids and I completed a 16-day road trip that spanned more than 5,000 miles and took us through 18 states. The trip was largely a desire to expose my children to black history missing in their classes and curriculum. Particularly, after my daughter told me that her 7th-grade Texas history teacher intentionally omitted slavery, allegedly for fear of angering anyone, I knew I could not rely solely on the education she and her brother received in their classrooms.
This complete and deliberate avoidance of topics like slavery might have been due to a then-pending and now current Texas law, which was allegedly aimed to keep the graduate-level subject of critical race theory (CRT) out of the K-12 curriculum. The law specifically prevents teachers from discussing "widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs.” Since none of these terms are defined, some teachers appear to choose to avoid topics like race completely, as was done in my daughter's Texas history course. That being the case and my refusal to allow my children to be completely ignorant about topics like race, I decided to both learn about and visit as many historical sites as we could on a road trip.
My initial plan was a month-long road trip of the lower 48 states, with a focus on black history and our family's ties to that history. However, after checking the calendar and the budget, decided that a two-week tour of the South (basically Oklahoma to Virginia and all the states below them) was more feasible. After settling on this tour of the South, I got a phone call from my grandmother who lives in Chicago and she asked if the family and I were planning to pay them a visit this summer. The kids reminded me that we had not been to Chicago since the pandemic began and were overdue to visit. Thus, it got added as a stop on the trip as well.
We visited Black Wall Street in Tulsa, Emmett Till's home in Chicago, Fort Sumner in Charleston, and many places in between, including some breathtaking views from the Appalachian mountains, like the picture above. I posted pictures from our trip on my Facebook page in a post, but after a couple of weeks off the road, I wanted to reflect a bit on what I learned on the trip. Also, since my children were required to write me a report of what they learned on the trip, it's only fair that I do the same. So here are my reflections about our 5,000+ mile road trip.
Most of the Things We Learn in History Were Just the Tip of the Iceberg
One of the things I quickly realized was how most of the stories we hear about in history were the most famous incidents. However, similar to an iceberg, where the majority of the object remains hidden under the water and just a small part is visible above the water, so is the case with many of the most famous incidents we learn about in black history.
Birmingham Alone had More Than 50 Bombings
When I think of bombing incidents during the civil rights movement, the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church that killed 4 girls usually comes to mind. (Quick side note: their deaths really hit me this trip when I realized they were all 14 and 11, which were the same ages as my children.) I had no idea, just how many racially motivated bombings took place in Birmingham alone. It appears that Birmingham had over 50 racially motivated bombings in the span of just 18 years. In fact, there were so many racially motivated bombings in Birmingham it was nicknamed "Bombingham" by journalists.
The Sit-ins in Greensboro Weren't the First
When it comes to sit-ins, I knew there were a bunch that took place over the course of the Civil Rights Movement, but I always thought of the ones that took place at the Woolworth's building in Greensboro, North Carolina as the first and ones that inspired everyone else. It appears that other sit-ins did happen before the one in Greensboro. There were sit-ins that took place in Oklahoma City as early as 1958 and in other places place like Lexington, Kentucky in 1959. However, the ones that took place in Greensboro garnered huge media coverage and they did inspire many more similar protests across the country. This is why some people like myself might mistake them for being the first.
A Lawsuit Was a Critical Factor in the Integration of the Bus System in Montgomery
Like many others, I learned about the famous Montgomery bus boycott, which was sparked by Rosa Parks' refusal to give up her seat on a bus to a white person and led to a boycott organized by a young Martin Luther King, Jr. I learned that this boycott lasted for more than a year and lots of dedicated black people in Montgomery were willing to be inconvenienced by not riding the bus, which put so much economic and political pressure on Montgomery that it eventually led to the integration of the Montgomery bus system. While all these things did happen, a critical part that I didn't learn about until I visited the King Center in Atlanta was that one of the biggest deciding factors was the lawsuit, Browder v. Gale.
In this case, four black women sued Alabama and Montgomery for its statutes and ordinances that required segregation on the buses. Parks wasn't included in this lawsuit because she was charged with other things, which would have complicated the lawsuit, and they wanted to make sure the lawsuit was solely about segregated buses. The federal court that heard the case sided with the black women, relying on the Brown v. Board decision, which was decided 2 years earlier. The case was appealed to the SCOTUS but the court affirmed the decision. Three days after this ruling was implemented the bus boycott ended.
Integration Affected Different Regions Differently
During our trip, we saw a number of displays showing a variety of methods of integration. From the sit-ins at places like Greensboro, North Carolina, and Lexington, Kentucky to the integration of the Little Rock Central High School, integration sometimes took enormous efforts to achieve the result of the integration of public facilities. Eventually, the Civil Rights Law of 1964 codified these efforts into federal law, but the road there was a very troubled one for many.
I had previously learned that the year following the integration of Little Rock Central High School Arkansas' Governor shut down Little Rock public schools for a year, rather than continue with its integration efforts. Unfortunately, the closing of entire school districts rather than integrating them happened in many other places around the nation. During this trip, I learned that while Little Rock schools were closed, students would have their classes broadcast through the local television stations. I learned this from one of the staff at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site Visitor Center, and she noted that the distance learning our children just went through during the pandemic was not a completely new concept. Also, similar to the pandemic, the students who likely struggled the most were the ones who didn't have the means to access the technology required for them to get their lessons from the school. In the 50s, those who had televisions at home had an advantage over those who did not. Similarly, during the pandemic, those with computers at home had an advantage over those who did not.
Another realization that I had came from a discussion we had with the kids' maternal grandparents, my mother- and my father-in-law. They described how they helped integrate their high school in Pamlico County North Carolina in the late 1960s. They noted that there were tensions at times but for the most part peaceful. After discussing their integration experience, I realized that while their high school was integrated during this time period, my parents who grew up in Chicago, went to schools that remained largely segregated during the same period. This was largely due to housing practices in Chicago that led to de facto (by custom) segregation, which was and is common in cities in the north, making schools just as, if not more, segregated as the ones in the South, which for decades had segregation codified into law (de jure segregation).
The War of 1812 Shaped American History More Than I Previously Knew
Another major lesson learned from this trip was the pivotal role that the War of 1812 played in United States history. I remember hearing about it briefly in my history classes but didn't realize the role it played on the trajectory of the country, especially over the next few decades. This war, although often forgotten was the first time Congress issued a formal declaration of war and made the country grow as it realized its many deficiencies. It was also the inspiration for our national anthem after Francis Scott Keys observed a battle in Baltimore and was thrilled that when the smoke cleared that "our flag was still there." This glossing over in the history books might be due to part where the United States spent a lot of war getting beat up by Brittain, which doesn't play well to the narrative of "American exceptionalism." Thankfully for the United States, Brittain was also at war with France, who was a far bigger threat at the time. Regardless, of the reason, the War of 1812 was extremely important in the development of the country, and here are a few things I learned that resulted from it.
Made the U.S. Fortify the Ports Along Our Coasts
As I mentioned earlier, the United States got a good beating from the Brittain during the war. The Brits burned a number of buildings in Washington, D.C., including the White House and the U.S. Capitol (this siege was noted by some after the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021), and temporarily lost parts of the Michigan Territory, which included Detroit. As a result, the United States realized how susceptible it was to attack by foreign invaders, especially along its coastlines. This led to the fortification of many of the ports along the eastern seaboard. Many of those fortifications became key during the Civil War. In fact, Fort Sumner, which was built on a man-made island at the mouth of the Charleston harbor as a part of this fortification effort saw the first shots of the Civil War.
Help Solidify Andrew Jackson as a War Hero
Most of us know Andrew Jackson from his time as President of the United States from 1829 to 1937 but his victories in the War of 1812 in New Orleans and at Horseshoe Bend, along with subsequent ones in the Seminole Wars helped propel him to that position. "The Negro Fort" sits at the intersection of both of these wars and we were able to visit the former site which sits on the Apalachicola River. I didn't realize until we were leaving that the site was actually not open to the public after being hit by Hurricane Michael in 2019 (I just thought it was overdue for maintenance). The fort was built by the British during the War of 1812 to enlist local Native Americans against the United States, but ended up becoming a fort for the formerly enslaved and thus became known as "The Negro Fort." Once the word got out that there was a fort that was offering refuge to the formerly enslaved, it was leveled under the orders of Andrew Jackson in 1816. In 1818 during the first Seminole War, it was rebuilt, renamed Fort Gadsen, and repurposed for the United States until the end of the Civil War.
Helped Further Entrench Slavery
One of the most consequential aspects of the War of 1812 was how it further entrenched slavery and as a result, put the nation on the path to the Civil War a few decades later. So many slaves escaped and chose to fight with the British during the War that it caused increased suspicion which caused the system to become more entrenched. Some state legislatures even went as far as preventing individual slave owners from providing freedom to their slaves.
It also exacerbated the fight for the balance of power between northern states and southern states, which was an ongoing issue since the founding of the nation. From the very beginning, southern states feared that their needs, especially as they related to slavery, would not be fully considered or appreciated by the North. This fear led to a continual power struggle and resulted in things like the bill of rights, the electoral college, and the 3/5 compromise. After the War of 1812, Congress tried to continue to address this ongoing tension by admitting a slave state for every free state and when they ran into trouble with this method came up with the Missouri Compromise. Ultimately, all these efforts were still not enough to prevent the eventual result of the Civil War.
Major Moments in History Seemed to Overlap in Some Places
Another realization was how some places seemed to continue to have numerous major historical events take to occur, sometimes a or more century apart.
King was Murdered at Nearly the Exact Spot of a Massacre in Memphis in 1866
Not too long before leaving Memphis, I ran across a historical marker a block behind the Lorraine Motel. The marker described a massacre of black people in the area that took place nearly 102 years before King was shot. This massacre appears to have been used as evidence to help convince Congress to adopt the 14th Amendment, which was passed just over a month after the massacre on June 8, 1966. Similarly, King's death was used to put pressure on Congress to pass the Fair Housing Act of 1968, which became law a week after his death. It seemed interesting that two instances of violence in Memphis seemed to have played a role in addressing issues of inequality in this country. After noticing the trend of violence against black people there resulting in major legislation for equality, I wondered if we would have to wait until the 2060s and see more black people die in Memphis before we would see any more meaningful Congressional action to address racial inequality.
Greensboro Played a Role During Reconstruction and the Civil Rights Movement
Another place where I saw the history of the reconstruction era overlap with the history of the Civil Rights Movement was in Greensboro, North Carolina. In particular, across the street from the Woolworth Building was a sign with the story of Attorney and Judge Albion Tourgee. Tourgee was a black ally and planted roots in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1865. He did a variety of things, which included drafting the state's post-war constitution in 1868 and helping organize the state's Republican party along with what would become Bennett College. Tourgee eventually left both Greensboro and North Carolina, but would later argue the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case before the United States Supreme Court.
Greensboro would play a role in helping to fulfill Tourgee's desire to dismantle systems of inequality with their infamous sit-in demonstrations. The four young men who became known as the Greensboro Four were students at North Carolina A & T and were the first to push the boundaries in this area. What is not well known, is that they were accompanied by young women from Bennett College, which was founded by Tourgee nearly a century earlier. These women served as spotters watching from the store during the first sit-in and the next day they joined the young men and the sit-ins began to grow from there.
Charleston Played a Huge Role in the Civil War and has Recently Impacted the Discussion on Race
By the time the Civil War took place, Charleston was near the top of places vested in the institution of slavery. As such, it is little surprise that South Carolina was the first state to succeed from the Union and that Fort Sumner, at the mouth of the Charleston Harbor is where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. 154 years after the first shots from the Civil War were fired, a 21-year-old white supremacist fired the shots that killed 9 parishioners at a historic black church in Charleston. The shooter claimed to target the church because of its history, which includes a failed slave rebellion by a cofounder of the church, Denmark Vesey.
The shooting exposed the issues with many common beliefs in 2015. First, it showed that even after the election of a black president, the nation still struggled with violent racism. Also, the idea that the racists were all old and would just eventually die out was flawed, as the shooter was only 21 at the time of the shooting. Furthermore, the fact that the police were not only able to apprehend the shooter without incident but willing to buy him food from Burger King created a stark contrast to the videos of unarmed black men being shot by police circulating the web. One of the only positive things that resulted from the shooting was the State of South Carolina finally removing the Confederate Flag from the Capitol grounds.
My Family's Proximity to Historical Characters Made Me Better Appreciate Their Stories
I've learned over the last several years that parts of my family have been in close proximity to some of these people who made an impact on our country's history. For instance, I found out 2 years ago from my mother that Emmett Till lived on the same street as my maternal grandparents and uncles in Chicago when he passed (he lived at 64th and St. Lawrence and they stayed at 63rd and St. Lawrence). I also learned several years ago from one of my cousins that our great-grandparents were from Southampton County Virginia, which is the birthplace of historical figures like Dred Scott and Nat Turner.
I kept these things at the forefront of my mind throughout this trip and thought about how my family not only lived during this period but at times were in such close proximity that they had to have shared the same spaces and experiences at some point. Even though I haven't heard any stories of my family being formally acquainted with the Till, Turner, or Scott families, the idea that they shared the same spaces made me think of their stories a lot more personally. When Till died, it was more than just another tragic loss of the black community for my family, but he was a part of their actual neighborhood. He attended the same school as my mother and uncles, and his family likely shopped at some of the same local stores as mine. (Side note: Till passed the year before my mother was born and my uncles were 5 and 6 at the time).
Similarly, Nat Turner and Dred Scott were not just contemporaries of one another but of some of my family members who also lived in Southampton County, Virginia during that time period. Again, I'm not sure if any of them ever had interactions with one another, but seeing them all as members of the same community makes their stories hit much closer to home. Had I had this perspective while I was still in school taking history, it probably would have resonated more with me.
Final Thoughts
Overall this trip was a great experience. I knew that our nation was built and shaped by the institution and aftermath of slavery, but seeing its literal fingerprints on our nation (like the ones on the brick in the picture below at Fort Sumner) helped me better appreciate it. I took the children on a road trip to help them better understand this history but came out learning so much more myself. Even if you don't do a 5,000+ mile trip like this one, I highly suggest that you take the time to visit one of our nation's many historical sites. Being there seems to have a way to put things in context that reading about it on a page does not always do.
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