PLEASE READ THIS INFORMATIONAL BULLETIN CAREFULLY AS IT CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE THE PILGRIMAGE.
This Pilgrimage will be expertly guided by five incredible staff members. They include:
ITINERARY
Here is a link to the itinerary. Note that as details are finalized, it is subject to change. We encourage you to use it to read up on the places we’ll be visiting, but approach it with openness and flexibility, as changes might be made because of speaker unavailability, traffic, time, etc. Your Pilgrimage staff will inform you when changes are being made.
2023 NOVEMBER PILGRIMAGE ITINERARY
TRAVEL INFORMATION
If you have not already made your travel arrangements, we suggest you do that as soon as possible.
Arrival in Birmingham
We will meet in Birmingham on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport hotel (see address below) no later than 3:00 pm Central Time. There is a free airport shuttle to the hotel. After you arrive at Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport, call the hotel at 205-909-1999 to request a shuttle.
The bus will be leaving the hotel at 3:15 pm, so if you are scheduled to arrive at the hotel after 3 pm, contact us at [email protected], so we can tell you how to meet up with us.
If your arrival is delayed for any reason, please call us when you can at 601-526-1965 to make alternative arrangements to meet up with us.
Lodging
Included in your package are four hotel nights:
Additional nights before or after these dates will be at your own expense. You can contact the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport directly to make reservations or reserve a room through an online hotel booking site.
Driving
If you drive to Birmingham, you can leave your car without charge in the hotel parking lot for the duration of our trip. However, you must pick up a parking pass at the registration desk before leaving your car.
Departure at the End of the Pilgrimage
On our final day together, Sunday, November 12, we will drive from Montgomery to Birmingham in the morning. After making a few additional site visits, we will drop people at the airport by no later than 2 pm. We will then return anyone who’s not flying out that day to the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to fly home on Sunday, November 12, do not schedule a flight before 4:00 pm, to give yourself enough time to comfortably make your flight. If you must schedule an earlier flight, please talk with our tour manager to let them know. You might need to arrange your own transportation to the airport from downtown Birmingham.
ABOUT SCHOLARSHIPS
We encourage participants who have the resources to do so to contribute to our Scholarships Fund. A scholarship donation is an opportunity for individuals to take a concrete action toward healing the wounds of racism by making it possible for a person whose life has been impacted by color discrimination or economic disadvantage to participate in the Pilgrimage. Please donate so others can share this experience.
SCHOLARSHIP DONATION
PREPARING FOR THE TRIP
For you to get the most out of this experience, we hope you will do some advance reading and video watching. Our website offers many resources (see Resources) covering both history and current developments in civil rights areas relevant to the stops. We thought we would highlight a few especially good sources that you might find in your library or bookstore.
Books
Weary Feet, Rested Souls by Townsend Davis - 1999
We recommend that you purchase a copy to carry with you on the journey. It’s available from Amazon in print, both new and used copies, and Kindle editions, or you can order it from your favorite independent bookstore.
Although it was published in 1999, it contains the best history of many of the sites we’ll be visiting. Arranged by location, Weary Feet, Rested Souls describes key places we will visit, including maps, Movement history, photos and quotes. It provides a good preliminary review of the significance of each site, and a helpful tool for remembering the sites and telling others about them back home.
We also recommend that you explore one or more of these books about the Movement in the areas we will be visiting.
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter - 2001
Now with a new afterword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle in Birmingham as the movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis- 2013
The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.
Selma, 1965 by Charles Eugene Fager - 1974
The earliest attempt to describe the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, valuable because it was written by someone directly involved in it.
Films
Several films (available as video, DVD or both) are well worth watching on your own. Some are available through streaming services or your local library. We will be using some visual materials on the bus, but will not have the time to include all segments of this excellent resource:
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Henry Hampton (Available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other streaming services) We will view a segment of this on the bus where the story takes place, but all sections are well worth watching ahead of time.
This is just a start. You’ll find more on our Resources page and many more by contacting your favorite bookstore or searching for topics of interest on the Web.
Time Zone
Please note that we'll be on Central Time (UTC-06:00) throughout the trip so you might need to reset your watches when you arrive (and remember that your phone might automatically reset).
The Weather
This time of year, Alabama temperatures are typically in the mid-60s in the day and 40s and 50s at night. There’s always a possibility that we will get some rain and maybe even a thunderstorm, so it’s a good idea to bring a rain jacket and/or umbrella. As we get closer, be sure to check the weather forecast for Birmingham and Montgomery. That will give you a good idea of the weather in the region.
Packing
Casual, comfortable clothes are fine. You probably want to pack a long sleeve shirt, sweater, or light jacket if you’re someone who gets cold easily.
Except when crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge (this is optional if you’re concerned about walking over the bridge), and in museums, you probably won’t be doing extensive walking on this trip, but we still recommend comfortable, walking shoes.
Please limit yourself to one carry-on size suitcase (which will be stored underneath the bus and inaccessible during travel days) and one small bag to carry on the bus with you. A small tote bag or backpack works best to keep your stuff available to you on the bus.
Also, please remember to pack a water bottle. We will have some bottled water for those who need it but, for the environment's sake, we don't want to purchase more than we will consume.
LLP Merch
While you’re packing, don’t forget to pack your LLP wear. Of course, you’ll have to buy one (or several) shirts first. Visit our store to purchase an LLP t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, hoodie, or sweatshirt with the LLP tagline: Inspiring today’s work for racial justice with lessons from the Civil Rights Movement. It’s not only a memento of the trip, but also an important conversation starter about racial justice.
ORDER LLP WEAR HERE| BONFIRE
Sleeping Aids
And if you’re sharing a room, remember to pack your eyeshades and earplugs to manage lights and sounds that might impact your sleeping.
Scents
We also ask that you limit scents, i.e., perfume, cologne, and any extra scented things. If people have a sensitivity to scents, the close quarters of the bus could activate them. Also, be sure to check with your roommate before spraying anything in the room, burning a scented candle, etc.
Cash
It’s a good idea to have cash to leave a tip for the housekeeping staff. We generally recommend $3-5 per night. If you’re sharing a room, you can split that between you.
You might also want cash or credit cards for incidentals, gifts, snacks, etc. That should be all you need.
COVID-19 And Other Health Considerations
At this point, we highly recommend wearing masks in crowded indoor spaces, including on the bus, but this is optional. This might be modified as we determine what infection rates are in the cities and towns we’ll be visiting.
Although we do not require that you’ve had the updated (bivalent) vaccine booster, now is a good time to get it, if you’re so inclined. You also might want to bring hand sanitizer and extra vitamins, zinc, Airborne, or whatever else you use to fortify yourself.
We also highly recommend that you minimize contact with others in the two weeks before your departure. We’d hate for you to come down with COVID and have to cancel your trip, and we really don’t want to have anyone bring it on the bus with them.
Special Dietary Needs
We make every effort to accommodate special dietary needs that you've made known to us when you registered. Our meals are not always at the same time every day, so if you need to eat on a schedule, or if you require anything else that you're concerned about not getting, please bring it with you. And remember to bring a water bottle. We’ll be contacting you before the trip about food choices for a few of the meals. Please respond promptly to our request for menu selections, so we can get the orders in.
Making Most of the Pilgrimage Experience
As you can see, the schedule is quite full, and the days are long. Unlike vacation tours when you have blocks of time to explore on your own, this is a sacred pilgrimage where, because of the people we'll meet and the places we'll visit, every minute is precious. We know it asks a lot of us, but we also know, from hundreds of people who have gone on this pilgrimage before you, they wouldn't trade a minute of it. When you return home after this trip, we hope you'll feel the same.
The key is to let the experience flow in you and through you without worrying about the clock. That's our job. We'll keep you informed about what's next and what to expect along the way. Your job is to breathe in as much as you can and let the experience take you where it will.
Communicating with Family, Friends, and your Workplace
Because this is a sacred immersive experience, we encourage you to tell family, friends, and employers that, except for real emergencies, you are not available for these days. Put an out-of-office/away message on your email and your cell phone. Try as hard as you can to reduce distractions. We even encourage you to stay away from the news and social media, except, of course, when you're posting about the Pilgrimage (#LLP_AL2023)!
It will all be there when you return home. Give yourself these few days; make it as meaningful as you can. We guarantee you won't regret it.
Gratitude
Expressing gratitude is an integral part of developing relationships. We encourage you to bring thank-you cards with you and find other ways to express gratitude to those you meet along the way.
Social Media/Writing/Photography/Video
If you're into social media, we appreciate all the Facebooking, Instagramming, TikToking, tweeting, YouTubing, and blogging you want to share. We invite you to document as much of your journey as you want, from packing until you return home again, for the folks back home, for future pilgrims, and for your own memories, by following these guidelines:
We’re looking forward to seeing you in Birmingham! In the meantime, if you have questions, feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]. We'll be back in touch with more information before you leave for Birmingham.
In peace,
Annette Marquis, Director of Operations
On behalf of your Living Legacy Pilgrimage staff: Pam Zappardino and Laura Ingersol
This Pilgrimage will be expertly guided by five incredible staff members. They include:
- Dr. Pamela Zappardino, Civil Rights Movement educator and Living Legacy Project Board member
- The Rev. Laura Ingersol, Civil Rights Movement educator and Living Legacy Project Board member
- Ms. Effie Burt, Music Educator
- Craig Zimanske, Tour Manager from Educational Travel Adventures (ETA)
- Driver to be named
ITINERARY
Here is a link to the itinerary. Note that as details are finalized, it is subject to change. We encourage you to use it to read up on the places we’ll be visiting, but approach it with openness and flexibility, as changes might be made because of speaker unavailability, traffic, time, etc. Your Pilgrimage staff will inform you when changes are being made.
2023 NOVEMBER PILGRIMAGE ITINERARY
TRAVEL INFORMATION
If you have not already made your travel arrangements, we suggest you do that as soon as possible.
Arrival in Birmingham
We will meet in Birmingham on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. in the lobby of the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport hotel (see address below) no later than 3:00 pm Central Time. There is a free airport shuttle to the hotel. After you arrive at Birmingham Shuttlesworth International Airport, call the hotel at 205-909-1999 to request a shuttle.
The bus will be leaving the hotel at 3:15 pm, so if you are scheduled to arrive at the hotel after 3 pm, contact us at [email protected], so we can tell you how to meet up with us.
If your arrival is delayed for any reason, please call us when you can at 601-526-1965 to make alternative arrangements to meet up with us.
Lodging
Included in your package are four hotel nights:
- November 8 in Birmingham
- November 9 in Selma
- November 10 and 11 in Montgomery
- Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport
- 5000 Richard Arrington Jr Blvd N
- Birmingham, AL 35212
- 205-591-6900
Additional nights before or after these dates will be at your own expense. You can contact the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport directly to make reservations or reserve a room through an online hotel booking site.
Driving
If you drive to Birmingham, you can leave your car without charge in the hotel parking lot for the duration of our trip. However, you must pick up a parking pass at the registration desk before leaving your car.
Departure at the End of the Pilgrimage
On our final day together, Sunday, November 12, we will drive from Montgomery to Birmingham in the morning. After making a few additional site visits, we will drop people at the airport by no later than 2 pm. We will then return anyone who’s not flying out that day to the Holiday Inn Birmingham Airport.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to fly home on Sunday, November 12, do not schedule a flight before 4:00 pm, to give yourself enough time to comfortably make your flight. If you must schedule an earlier flight, please talk with our tour manager to let them know. You might need to arrange your own transportation to the airport from downtown Birmingham.
ABOUT SCHOLARSHIPS
We encourage participants who have the resources to do so to contribute to our Scholarships Fund. A scholarship donation is an opportunity for individuals to take a concrete action toward healing the wounds of racism by making it possible for a person whose life has been impacted by color discrimination or economic disadvantage to participate in the Pilgrimage. Please donate so others can share this experience.
SCHOLARSHIP DONATION
PREPARING FOR THE TRIP
For you to get the most out of this experience, we hope you will do some advance reading and video watching. Our website offers many resources (see Resources) covering both history and current developments in civil rights areas relevant to the stops. We thought we would highlight a few especially good sources that you might find in your library or bookstore.
Books
Weary Feet, Rested Souls by Townsend Davis - 1999
We recommend that you purchase a copy to carry with you on the journey. It’s available from Amazon in print, both new and used copies, and Kindle editions, or you can order it from your favorite independent bookstore.
Although it was published in 1999, it contains the best history of many of the sites we’ll be visiting. Arranged by location, Weary Feet, Rested Souls describes key places we will visit, including maps, Movement history, photos and quotes. It provides a good preliminary review of the significance of each site, and a helpful tool for remembering the sites and telling others about them back home.
We also recommend that you explore one or more of these books about the Movement in the areas we will be visiting.
Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama: The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution by Diane McWhorter - 2001
Now with a new afterword, the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatic account of the civil rights era’s climactic battle in Birmingham as the movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., brought down the institutions of segregation.
The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis- 2013
The definitive political biography of Rosa Parks examines her six decades of activism, challenging perceptions of her as an accidental actor in the civil rights movement.
Selma, 1965 by Charles Eugene Fager - 1974
The earliest attempt to describe the 1965 Selma voting rights campaign, valuable because it was written by someone directly involved in it.
Films
Several films (available as video, DVD or both) are well worth watching on your own. Some are available through streaming services or your local library. We will be using some visual materials on the bus, but will not have the time to include all segments of this excellent resource:
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years 1954-1965 by Henry Hampton (Available on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and other streaming services) We will view a segment of this on the bus where the story takes place, but all sections are well worth watching ahead of time.
This is just a start. You’ll find more on our Resources page and many more by contacting your favorite bookstore or searching for topics of interest on the Web.
Time Zone
Please note that we'll be on Central Time (UTC-06:00) throughout the trip so you might need to reset your watches when you arrive (and remember that your phone might automatically reset).
The Weather
This time of year, Alabama temperatures are typically in the mid-60s in the day and 40s and 50s at night. There’s always a possibility that we will get some rain and maybe even a thunderstorm, so it’s a good idea to bring a rain jacket and/or umbrella. As we get closer, be sure to check the weather forecast for Birmingham and Montgomery. That will give you a good idea of the weather in the region.
Packing
Casual, comfortable clothes are fine. You probably want to pack a long sleeve shirt, sweater, or light jacket if you’re someone who gets cold easily.
Except when crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge (this is optional if you’re concerned about walking over the bridge), and in museums, you probably won’t be doing extensive walking on this trip, but we still recommend comfortable, walking shoes.
Please limit yourself to one carry-on size suitcase (which will be stored underneath the bus and inaccessible during travel days) and one small bag to carry on the bus with you. A small tote bag or backpack works best to keep your stuff available to you on the bus.
Also, please remember to pack a water bottle. We will have some bottled water for those who need it but, for the environment's sake, we don't want to purchase more than we will consume.
LLP Merch
While you’re packing, don’t forget to pack your LLP wear. Of course, you’ll have to buy one (or several) shirts first. Visit our store to purchase an LLP t-shirt, long-sleeve shirt, hoodie, or sweatshirt with the LLP tagline: Inspiring today’s work for racial justice with lessons from the Civil Rights Movement. It’s not only a memento of the trip, but also an important conversation starter about racial justice.
ORDER LLP WEAR HERE| BONFIRE
Sleeping Aids
And if you’re sharing a room, remember to pack your eyeshades and earplugs to manage lights and sounds that might impact your sleeping.
Scents
We also ask that you limit scents, i.e., perfume, cologne, and any extra scented things. If people have a sensitivity to scents, the close quarters of the bus could activate them. Also, be sure to check with your roommate before spraying anything in the room, burning a scented candle, etc.
Cash
It’s a good idea to have cash to leave a tip for the housekeeping staff. We generally recommend $3-5 per night. If you’re sharing a room, you can split that between you.
You might also want cash or credit cards for incidentals, gifts, snacks, etc. That should be all you need.
COVID-19 And Other Health Considerations
At this point, we highly recommend wearing masks in crowded indoor spaces, including on the bus, but this is optional. This might be modified as we determine what infection rates are in the cities and towns we’ll be visiting.
Although we do not require that you’ve had the updated (bivalent) vaccine booster, now is a good time to get it, if you’re so inclined. You also might want to bring hand sanitizer and extra vitamins, zinc, Airborne, or whatever else you use to fortify yourself.
We also highly recommend that you minimize contact with others in the two weeks before your departure. We’d hate for you to come down with COVID and have to cancel your trip, and we really don’t want to have anyone bring it on the bus with them.
Special Dietary Needs
We make every effort to accommodate special dietary needs that you've made known to us when you registered. Our meals are not always at the same time every day, so if you need to eat on a schedule, or if you require anything else that you're concerned about not getting, please bring it with you. And remember to bring a water bottle. We’ll be contacting you before the trip about food choices for a few of the meals. Please respond promptly to our request for menu selections, so we can get the orders in.
Making Most of the Pilgrimage Experience
As you can see, the schedule is quite full, and the days are long. Unlike vacation tours when you have blocks of time to explore on your own, this is a sacred pilgrimage where, because of the people we'll meet and the places we'll visit, every minute is precious. We know it asks a lot of us, but we also know, from hundreds of people who have gone on this pilgrimage before you, they wouldn't trade a minute of it. When you return home after this trip, we hope you'll feel the same.
The key is to let the experience flow in you and through you without worrying about the clock. That's our job. We'll keep you informed about what's next and what to expect along the way. Your job is to breathe in as much as you can and let the experience take you where it will.
Communicating with Family, Friends, and your Workplace
Because this is a sacred immersive experience, we encourage you to tell family, friends, and employers that, except for real emergencies, you are not available for these days. Put an out-of-office/away message on your email and your cell phone. Try as hard as you can to reduce distractions. We even encourage you to stay away from the news and social media, except, of course, when you're posting about the Pilgrimage (#LLP_AL2023)!
It will all be there when you return home. Give yourself these few days; make it as meaningful as you can. We guarantee you won't regret it.
Gratitude
Expressing gratitude is an integral part of developing relationships. We encourage you to bring thank-you cards with you and find other ways to express gratitude to those you meet along the way.
Social Media/Writing/Photography/Video
If you're into social media, we appreciate all the Facebooking, Instagramming, TikToking, tweeting, YouTubing, and blogging you want to share. We invite you to document as much of your journey as you want, from packing until you return home again, for the folks back home, for future pilgrims, and for your own memories, by following these guidelines:
- When posting (yes, even on Facebook), use hashtag #LLP_AL2023 so we can identify your posts and share them on the Living Legacy Pilgrimage platforms.
- If you're bringing a camera, even one on your phone, please be respectful of our guests. Give our speakers a chance to settle in before snapping photos.
- Do not tag photos of other people on the bus without obtaining permission from them.
- Talk with a staff member to get permission before taking video or audio recordings of our guests.
- If you're a blogger or do other writing, please send us your blog posts and writing so we can share them.
We’re looking forward to seeing you in Birmingham! In the meantime, if you have questions, feel free to e-mail us at [email protected]. We'll be back in touch with more information before you leave for Birmingham.
In peace,
Annette Marquis, Director of Operations
On behalf of your Living Legacy Pilgrimage staff: Pam Zappardino and Laura Ingersol
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