During the civil rights struggle, Tougaloo College, Jackson Miss., was known as the cradle of the movement. It housed student volunteers and leaders including Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers and others, who graced the podium at Woodworth Chapel, the campus centerpiece.

To help commemorate the inauguration of the nation's 44th president, seven students in Tougaloo's Department of Mass Communication mapped out a tour of significant sites of the civil rights era to visit along their route to Barack Obama's swearing in on Jan. 20.

They dubbed it "From Woodworth to Washington: The Tougaloo Harambee's Caravan to History." The Harambee is the Tougaloo student newspaper.

The trip, which began Jan. 14, includes stops in Selma, Montgomery, Birmingingham, Atlanta and Greensboro. The Tougaloo students will blog from each location.

The trip is being  sponsored by Nissan, Terry's Installation and the Tougaloo Department of Mass Communication. It was initiated by department chair and veteran journalist Eric Stringfellow, who is coordinating the project from Jackson.

"I thought it was important to try to give some perspective to Obama's inauguration," Stringfellow said. "We are going to produce a special edition of The Harambee (Tougaloo's student newspaper) and a documentary about the trip."

Stringfellow also said Tougaloo owns Medgar Evers' home, which is now a museum, and the college and WJTV will host  an inauguration viewing party there.

Crystal Daniel, 22, senior mass communication major 

Wednesday, Jan. 14, 6:27 a.m.

I have butterflies. I’m very excited and a little scared. This will be my first real experience where I’m performing professionally on my own with other students in my department. However, I am confident I will apply what I know and incorporate the new things I will learn along the way.

Photo by Terrance Mallory

Crystal Daniel

Wednesday Jan. 14, 12:03 p.m. (Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery)

I’m standing here looking at the statue of the legendary Rosa Parks, known around the World as the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Parks, who was arrested for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white man in Alabama, committed an act of civil disobedience, but to African-Americans it means something much greater. I’m here at this state of the art museum which is built in tribute to the legacy Parks created and also a major landmark. I’m revisiting how her actions changed the paths of segregation in America and how her actions birthed the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Through my course of thought, and humbled pride, bright yet beaming in my soul, I’m contemplating the day Barack Obama will be sworn in as the first black man and 44th president of the United States of America. So many emotions and happy tears are boiling inside, ready to explode because I look back at the life, morals, and the fight that Parks and others stood for to gain equality for African-Americans and now I look forward to Obama transforming the future of America, one with more highlighted black leadership. It just feels so wonderful to feel this type of connection with our past, our heritage, our culture, and to revisit and imagine we have lived what our ancestors once did. I just have the utmost respect and internal as well as eternal pride to travel great distances to stand for a cause and stand in the place my ancestors dreamed we would one day be.

Ja’Leasa Walden, 19, sophomore English/mass communication major

Wed., Jan. 14, 9:36 a.m. 

“The same hands that pick cotton can now pick President”

To the eye Selma, Alabama seems to be a quiet, peaceful and homely town, as I look around the downtown area I realize at one point in history it was not this peaceful and calm.

Photo by Terrance Mallory

Ja'Leasa Walden

Sam Walker, 55 , the national consultant for the National Voting Rights Museum in Selma, enlightened me on how “Bloody Sunday” and the march across The Edmund Pettus Bridge is the reason why we are allowed to vote. “The primary reason we have an African-American president is because of what happened in Selma, even though it took 44 years for the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. to come true, we still have a long way to go, this is only the peak of the greatness America will experience,” Walker said during a tour of the museum.

As a young African-American woman and exploring the museum, I saw slogans that were used to stop African-Americans from voting such as “How many bubbles in a bar a soap?” The questions asked were mere insults to a voter or even a person’s intelligence.  My first instinct was to say “WHAT!”  But in my heart I acknowledged the humility of the people, the humbleness and sincerity that they shared in accomplishing a communal goal, the right to vote.

In the museum, I found myself overwhelmed when I viewed a mock prison cell. One of my peers, Tyler Carter, shared this experience with me.  We read a roster where people were arrested for “parading without a permit”. I found that to be ludicrous, but that is because I have always had the freedom to wander as I please.

There was a wall in the museum, “I was there” wall, in which love ones or people who actually participated in the march could write on sticky pads and post them. Some of the experiences written were “I was not there but my grandmother was beaten on that march.” Some brought tears to my eyes, while others stirred up a tad bit of angry.

With the wind blowing in my hair as I walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, a sense of pride filled my heart that people unselfishly actually jeopardized and sacrifice their lives for the people in later generations to be able to vote and be treated as equals. “The same hands that pick cotton can now pick Presidents” is a statement that shows the sacrifice that was made by previous generations for the current generation now. It may have taken 44 years for the first African American president to be elected to serve this country as the 44th president, but the journey along the way makes this experience well worth it and adds a happy ending to the African American experience.

The Tougaloo students will be blogging and reporting for Black College Wire throughout the trip.

The students who are on the trip:

Tyler Carter, 19, a freshman Mass Communication with emphasis in journalism and broadcasting. He is the weekly sports writer, this is his first year writing for the Tougaloo Harambee.

Crystal Daniel, 22, a senior mass communication major from Tyler town. She serves as the paper’s senior editor and edits its editorial page. Her area of emphasis is print journalism. Daniel is a four-year Harambee veteran and served briefly as editor last year. As a freshman she was among a team of Harambee staffers who traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans to produce a Hurricane Katrina edition. Last summer she was involved in a research program at the University of Mississippi.

Carmen Farrish, 20, a junior mass communication/broadcast journalism major from Edwards. Farrish, who spent the summer as an intern at WLBT-TV 3, will be responsible for daily updates for the Harambee Online, which is hosted on the Tougaloo College website. She has served in several capacities for the Harambee since her freshman year.

Teressa Fulgham, 20, a junior mass communication/print journalism major from Jackson. She spent the summer in a research program at the University of Minnesota and will spend next summer studying in South Africa. Fulgham, who served briefly served as managing editor last year, will be in charge of the paper’s layout and design.

Terrance Mallory, 22, a junior mass communication majors from Minneapolis, Minn. He has served as a staff writer for the Harambee and currently serves as an anchor for Harambee TV. Mallory also does graphics for the newspaper and does production for the television station. He has interned at the Cytec Corp. and currently does marketing for the firm.

Ja’Leasa Walden, 19, the Harambee’s managing editor. She is a sophomore English/mass communication major from Gautier and last year served as a staff writer for The Harambee. She is overseeing the inaugural coverage for the student newspaper and plans to attend law school after graduation.

Jerry Watson, 22, a senior interdisciplinary humanities major. Watson directs the production of Harambee TV. He was a finalist for the Collegiate Broadcasters Inc. award and plans to attend Boston University for graduate school.

Instructor: Melody Fisher, Mass Communication at Tougaloo College