Freedom Riders From Afar

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Nineteen African students, visiting the United States to study the Civil Rights Movement and the American South, will embark Friday, July 27, on a seven-day bus tour along select routes taken by the Freedom Riders, activists who toured the South in 1961 to challenge segregation.

The current tour, which is part of an international exchange program sponsored by U.S. State Department, will introduce the students from Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa to key sites in the American struggle for civil rights and allow them to hear personal remembrances from people who participated in the movement.

The students will visit these important historical sites:

• Central High School in Little Rock at 4 p.m. Friday, July 27.

• Davies Plantation in Memphis at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, July 28.

• National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 29.

• 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., at 10 a.m. Tuesday, July 31.

• The King Center in Atlanta at 3 p.m. Tuesday, July 31.

• Historic Sweet Auburn Neighborhood in Atlanta at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1.

• International Civil Rights Center in Greensboro, N.C., at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 1.

Facilitated by the Spring International Language Center at the University of Arkansas, the exchange program has provided student leaders with opportunities to learn about the United States while developing leadership abilities. Participants have engaged in intensive study of the Civil Rights Movement and have been exposed to a broad spectrum of American social justice efforts of the past and present.

Through course work, lectures and workshops, students have been challenged to expand their skills as critical thinkers. Visits to grassroots organizations, including a weekend of community development study in the Arkansas Delta, have added to students’ understanding of how social justice efforts function in the United States. Project leadership, faculty and staff have worked to prepare the students to return home both inspired and informed about ways to become agents of positive change in their communities.

Spring International Language Center at the University of Arkansas is a professional academic organization providing intensive English and cross­-cultural education to international students. It attempts to understand and appreciate the students’ cultural differences and to enhance their ability to function effectively in the American culture.

Participants in Study of the U.S. Institutes are among the approximately 30,000 individuals who participate in exchanges managed by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs each year. Other exchange programs of the U.S. State Department include the Fulbright Program and the International Visitor Leadership Program.