By Kathy Jaffari and Kathy Ochroch
For a long weekend in March 2025, a group of Philadelphia Bar Association members had the unique opportunity to experience a Civil Rights Journey, a weekend long CLE program, that allowed us to immerse ourselves in the history of the fight for racial justice and voting rights, hearing directly from the people who witnessed – and made – history.
We traveled from Atlanta to Montgomery to Selma to Birmingham, engrossed in the unique and powerful opportunity to dive into the history of the civil rights movement. One particularly poignant moment was walking across the hallowed ground of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. We were deeply moved as we walked the same path that, 60 years earlier, brave men and women had crossed in an effort to secure voting rights for Black Americans. Images of the brutal attack on those marchers were broadcast around the country, helping lead to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant pieces of legislation of the Civil Rights Era.
It is not an exaggeration to say that, for many of us, this journey changed our lives. As planners of the event, we welcome you to follow our journey, and we invite you to consider making such a journey yourself in 2026 for the Association’s next Civil Rights Journey.
Our Arrival
On Thursday evening, at our hotel in Atlanta, we gathered to meet one another and to be introduced to our guides for the weekend, Billy Planer, the director and founder of Etgar 36 and a longtime civil rights educator, and Professor Marissa Bluestine, assistant director of the Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. We were in great hands with Planer educating us on the history of the civil rights era while Bluestine provided us with analysis of the legal cases and framework that developed before, during, and after the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
Day 1
On Friday morning, we boarded our bus and started the drive to Montgomery, Alabama. We wasted no time, using our travel time to watch a portion of the renowned documentary “Eyes on the Prize” and to listen intently to Planer describe the history of slavery, the Reconstruction Era, and Jim Crow in the deep south. As we approached Montgomery, Planer and Bluestine provided historical context of the events that led to the arrest of Rosa Parks and the resulting Birmingham Bus Boycott ahead of a visit to the Rosa Parks Museum. Standing in the spot where, on December 1, 1955, Mrs. Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger and moved to the back of the public bus put us back in history.
Our visit to the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) Memorial for Peace and Justice was, for many of us, the most wrenching part of the journey. Often referred to as the “Lynching Museum,” this powerful monument memorializes the over 4,400 Black people who were killed in racial terror lynchings between 1877 and 1950. The name of each lynching victim is engraved on a steel monument, one for each county where a lynching took place, creating a somber, visceral reminder of the violence and terror perpetrated against Black people during this shameful time in our nation’s history.
The EJI’s Legacy Museum chronicles racial injustice in America from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration through the use of first-person stories, and interactive media presentations. Weary, yet inspired, we ended our first full day with a group dinner that allowed us to share and discuss what we had learned and what the experience meant to us.
Day 2
As we traveled out of Montgomery, we visited EJI’s Sculpture Garden, which uses art and artifacts to create an immersive look into the lives of enslaved people. By including authentic dwellings from plantations, and a train car used to traffic enslaved people, the story of enslavement was brought to heartbreaking life through the art and sculpture.
Reflecting on the impact of the EJI museum and memorials, one of our fellow travelers, David Walker, said “I took my college age son on the Civil Rights Journey. It was a remarkable trip and something truly special to share with him. The Equal Justice Initiative’s Museum and Sculpture Garden are unlike anything I have ever seen documenting our nation’s history of cruelty and brutality toward Black people. No teacher, book or documentary will give you the perspective that this trip will.”
In Selma, we had the privilege of meeting and hearing from Barbara Barge, a 74-year-old woman who had marched alongside Dr. King and John Lewis when she was a teenager living in Selma. Inspired by her courageous story, we then had the opportunity to walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an incredibly powerful experience that we will all carry with us.
Sean Walker, a college student and the youngest member of our group, touched us when he shared, “I am fortunate to have experienced this type of journey at a young age. The Civil Rights Journey is a must for any person who has a desire for social justice or has hopes for making the world a better place. I was lucky to be able to attend at a young age. One of the many aspects that stood out to me was that the Civil Rights movement was largely headed by women and young people! As our guide Billy Planner informed us, college students were the ones who were crazy enough to risk being beaten or killed in areas such as Selma! Those who fought fearlessly and without rest in the Civil Rights movement have done all that they could. It is now my generation's turn. In the words of Barbara Barge, the baton is being passed to the young people. It is now our responsibility to counter prejudice with kindness, ignorance with education and hatred with love. This work is as important as it has been since before the Civil Rights movement. Although this type of change often happens through large scale legislation and policy reform, it can start on an individual level as well. We must consciously make an effort to listen more to one another, be open to change, and be willing to make personal sacrifices for those who have less. I know that my generation is capable of this type of action, we must simply commit our minds to it. If ever we get weary in the fight for justice, we should remember those who have come before us and who have enacted change with much less than we have today.”
Our ride from Selma to Birmingham, where we visited the site of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and learned about the Birmingham Children’s Crusade, was quite quiet as we reflected on all we experienced during the day. In what was clearly a highlight of our trip, Planer introduced us to Bishop Calvin Woods, a civil rights giant who co-founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and worked alongside Dr. King to protest racial segregation. Now 91 years old, Bishop Woods told us about his life, and his inspiration to make a difference in the world.
As Rhonda Fulginiti shared, “’Prayer changes things.’ That is the thoughtful words of advice given to our group in Birmingham, Alabama by the 91-year-old preacher who spent time with us in a park on a sunny spring day. With the political climate we are all living in, this trip made me (and many of us) feel like we were being called to do something about what we are seeing. This preacher had lived through the Civil Rights Movement, been shot four times, and still felt that it was important to share with our group that he believed we were all called there to meet him, hear his story, and make a difference. From Montgomery, Alabama to Selma, Birmingham and Atlanta, one thing was clear – we can never allow our country to go back to what happened in those places. We cannot allow anyone in our legal community, and community at large, to live in fear of losing their freedom or civil rights. Our history is our legacy. We need to learn from it and protect it at all costs. So many memorable moments along the way. I feel impassioned now to move forward and trust the process. Staying silent or doing nothing is no longer an option for me after this trip.”
Day 3
Sunday morning was our final day together, and it was on this day that we visited the King Center in Atlanta, which includes memorials for Dr. King and Corretta Scott King. We had the privilege of attending Sunday services at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dr. King’s historic church, and the current church of Reverand Senator Raphael Warnack. It was the perfect way to end our journey, with moments of reflection and introspection, as well as moments of joy, hopefulness, and a call to use our voices to fight for justice.
As we departed for home that afternoon, many of our participants expressed some of our feelings on that last day.
Paul Carrion noted, “Before this trip, I had merely intellectual knowledge of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, limited by the camera’s perspective or the author’s words. Now that we have walked in the footsteps of our predecessors, I have a shared experience of breathing the same air, seeing the same sights, and bearing witness to the brutality of slavery and Jim Crow. I have learned that the struggle for racial equality and justice is not a straight line, nor justice self-fulfilling. It is hard work, wrought with risk to personal livelihoods, bodies, and life. But the work is in alignment with the highest principles of America and is therefore a noble and just cause.”
And Jaclyn Grieser shared, “I’ve been sitting with everything we saw and experienced on this trip, and I just want to say how deeply it moved me. This wasn’t just an educational journey—it was emotional, grounding, and at times, absolutely gutting. I knew we’d be learning about slavery, lynchings, the Civil Rights Movement, and mass incarceration, but I don’t think I fully understood the emotional weight of it all until we were in it together. Every place we visited echoed with pain, but also profound resilience. I learned something new at every memorial, museum, and stop. I’ve been telling anyone who will listen just how transformative this trip was. It felt like we weren’t just learning history—we were witnessing it, still raw, still real, yet resilient in its love and hope. The ground where we were allowed to walk was nothing short of sacred. Ending the trip at Ebenezer Baptist Church, hearing that message of perseverance and hope—it was exactly what we needed after such a heavy, powerful week. I left feeling heartbroken but also galvanized and deeply inspired. My profound gratitude to the Philly Bar Association and to the entire group for making this trip possible.”
Barry Klayman explained, “This trip was an incredible experience. Meeting a woman who as a girl of 15-years-old participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery and a Reverend, now 91-years-old, who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Birmingham was inspirational. Their continuing belief in a better future despite all they endured is a testimonial to their faith and the Civil Rights Movement. Our visit to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, dedicated to the victims of racial terror lynchings, was quite sobering , as was our stop at the Legacy Museum, which told in great detail the story of slavery, Jim Crow and the lingering impact of both on the criminal justice system. Finally, to be warmly welcomed at a Sunday service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and to hear the joyous music and an incomparable sermon, ended our journey on a high note. Traveling with an incredible and knowledgeable guide and an animated and thoughtful group of judges and lawyers added to the impact of the trip. I think we all came away with a fuller understanding of the past and a redoubled commitment to the goal of racial justice.”
Ralph Pinkus remarked, “My reflections on our visit to cities that were either sites of the struggle to overcome segregation in this country and/or contain memorials/museums telling the history of racism in this country: I was both informed and filled with sadness. I was overwhelmed by the magnitude of the trade in human lives, not only that 12 million persons were kidnapped from Africa (of which two million perished during passage), but also that all 13 colonies were heavily invested in this sordid business. Philadelphia saw over 2,600 people sold into slavery in this country. I was very disturbed to see the cattle car that was used to transport the human cargo, as we recently visited Berlin, Germany and saw the railroad platform from which my grandmother was sent to the Theresienstadt Concentration camp less than 100 years after slavery ended in the United States. I also realized how easy, as time passes, it is to forget the struggles and sacrifices people took in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama to be treated equally only 60-70 years ago and during my lifetime. Visiting the Memorial for Peace and Justice was a stark reminder that while lynching has ended, racial injustice is far from ended. While we were moved “to pray” in Birmingham by Reverand Woods, his life story is one of active protest against injustice. Lest we forget, we can always look to the past to inform us of what is needed in the present.”
Sara Jacobson summed it up best. “Hearing from the people who witnessed history and fought these battles was incredibly moving, and visiting sites that commemorated battles for progress felt equally sad and important. This trip deepened my understanding of the ways that people with little resources overcame terrible injustices. We would do them a terrible disservice if we let that progress fall and were not at least as brave now as they were then. The racism they faced was enforced with terrible violence by the people with power in their communities and often endorsed by the state. This trip made me want to work for a better America. I am proud of the Bar Association for sponsoring this trip, and grateful for bringing us all together. This trip will make me a better person - a better informed person, a more thoughtful person, a person better prepared to advocate for racial justice, and a braver person. That's more than I would expect possible from any trip, and it's only possible because of your work to make this trip happen.”
As we ended our journey, we left with hope and inspiration, and a desire to move forward to make the world a better place.
Judge Teresa Sarmina (Ret.) shared that “The Civil Rights Journey took me beyond the television reporting of the sixties to the actual places where it all took place. It was a moving journey — so well done and educational. A great deal of it is tragic and heartbreaking, but all of it is inspirational. You should go, and you should take your older children with you."
As we end our journey, Sheena Bediako words continue to resonate with us:
“Our hearts, minds, and souls are forever changed in the most beautiful and meaningful of ways. It was an honor to share this impactful journey with each of you. Each of you are a bright light, and when that light unites, dark is boldly ushered out. Let’s continue to be the light together.”
Kathy Jaffari is 2025 Chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association. You can reach her at chancellor@philabar.org. Kathy E. Ochroch is co-chair of the Law Firm Pro Bono Committee.
