Alternative Spring Break Trip to Montgomery, Alabama

In March 2015, the Scott Center hosted an alternative spring break service trip to Montogmery, Alabama. Sponsored by the college and generous friends and alumni, the trip gave students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to see Civil Rights landmarks, meet people who had participated in the struggles of the 1960s, and do some direct community service.

Read blog posts from the trip.

Read
news coverage.

The trip marked the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, which played an important role in confronting the injustices facing African Americans, especially in the South. It occurred between the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Twenty Middlebury College students participated in that march, and this trip honors their activism.

Alabama Trip Slideshow

The trip included:

  • Hands-on community service work with Habitat for Humanity.
  • Visits to local historic sites, civil rights organizations and religious institutions, all of which played significant roles in the Civil Rights movement.
  • Conversations with guest speakers and among ourselves to deepen our understanding of this important time in American Civil Rights history.
  • Exploration of today’s civil rights challenges and plans for our own activist responses to them.

On March 31, the Scott Center presented a program called The Civil Rights Struggle 50 Years Later In Movement and Word: What Was, What Is, and What Should Be. 

The program included dance pieces choreographed by Assistant Professor of Dance Christal Brown, and brief personal remarks by Professors Larry Yarbrough, Bill Hart, and J Finley.  Middlebury graduates who went to Montgomery in 1965 shared their memories, and students who participated in this year’s trip spoke about their experiences.