FTCC mentoring coordinator Richard McDonald (l-r), instructor Melinda Pash, Dean of Arts & Humanities Dr. Kenjuana McCray, student Shelby Rodriguez, student Troy Hobbs, and instructor Christy Davenport are part of the group that will travel to Selma, Alabama, in March.
A group of students from Fayetteville Technical Community College and Fayetteville State University will take a firsthand journey through history this spring by participating in the Selma Experience and Student Leadership Conference.
The group will travel March 1-5 to Selma, Alabama, for a trip rich with historical relevance, visiting a number of landmarks made famous during the Civil Rights demonstrations of the 1960s.
While on the trip, the students will record their experiences, reflecting on the lessons learned and emotions evoked at the sites. These recordings will then be housed as the Voices of Selma Project in the digital archives at FTCC’s Paul H. Thompson Library.
FTCC history instructor Melinda Pash said collecting and preserving those recordings will help cement the experience for the students.
“Instead of having just a one-and-done experience and then we never think about it again,” Pash said, “what if the students took some time to reflect on their experiences, so it really becomes a learning experience for them?”
Thirty students total will attend — 15 each from FTCC and FSU — and most are History or Humanities majors.
The students will cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge — a key landmark of the Selma to Montgomery Marches and the site of the Bloody Sunday attacks— and take in a number of museums, including the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, the Rosa Parks Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, National Voting Rights Museum and George Washington Carver Museum.
The trip includes the Student Leadership Conference and stops at the Jubilee Festival and Parade as well as the Intergenerational Hip Hop Summit.
The project was made possible through a $3,500 community engagement grant from the North Carolina Humanities Council.
“I thought this community engagement grant would fit really well because you have to have a project that will bring your experience to the larger community,” Pash said. “Someone who can’t go could watch these videos and get a feel for the experience.”
The experience might even encourage others to make the trip. FTCC mentoring coordinator Richard McDonald, who will help chaperone the trip, said an in-person visit is an opportunity to be immersed in the past.
“The students will not only be able to get to read about what happened in the past, they will be able to walk the grounds of these monumental events,” McDonald said. “They’re really going to be amazed to see history come to life right before their eyes.”
