Participants will begin the day at the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville, honoring the sharecropper, organizer, and freedom fighter who became one of the most powerful voices of the civil rights movement.
The journey will continue with a brief viewing of the legendary Devil’s Crossroads in Clarksdale, where folklore says bluesman Robert Johnson made a deal with the devil in exchange for his unparalleled musical talent.
The itinerary will then include a tentative stop at the historic Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, one of the first Black towns in the United States to be incorporated, founded by formerly enslaved people. The hospital was staffed by Black doctors and nurses during segregation, serving Black communities and supporting civil rights leaders, including Fannie Lou Hamer and Medgar Evers.
For the final site, we will pass by Dockery Farms, a nationally recognized historic site often described as the birthplace of the blues. More than a cotton plantation, Dockery functioned as a self-contained community with its own store, post office, and school, and became a gathering place for foundational blues artists who shaped the Delta sound.
During the journey back to Jackson, the bus transforms into a sacred space for reflection, where stories are shared, emotions surface, and the meaning of the experience settles in. This is where our immersion becomes commitment, where what we have witnessed begins to shape what comes next. The seeds of change take root in hearts that will carry this experience forward long after the bus stops rolling.
We hope you will join us.