Pilgrimage to Alabama and Event on April 18, 2026 at NC Freedom Park
Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama
Five of WCCRC’s leaders shepherded a group of adults from Duke University’s OLLI program on a pilgrimage to important Civil Rights sites in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama in mid March. Jenny Levine, Associate Program Director of Duke’s OLLI, reported on the journey.
“Our guides from the Wake County Community Remembrance Coalition (Wake Truth) supported us not only with thoughtful logistics but also with genuine care and kindness. Together, we acknowledged that this was a learning experience—one that is meaningful, challenging, and at times difficult to absorb.
“The Equal Justice Initiative, pioneered by Bryan Stevenson, stands as a remarkable testament to truth, history, and the enduring impact of enslavement on our country—on each of us individually and on our society as a whole. We spent time learning about the Freedom Riders and their courage, walking among striking sculptures, and taking in the words and lived experiences of people who were stolen from their homes, forced onto ships, sold in markets, and compelled to labor in the United States.
“As a group, we also visited the church where Martin Luther King, Jr. served as pastor, along with the parsonage where he lived and welcomed so many members of the Montgomery community. I found myself thinking often about those who ‘passed the test’—who committed to nonviolence even in the face of violence—and wondering whether I would have had the strength to stand alongside them.”
WCCRC Leaders and OLLI Members in front of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.
Coming event at NC Freedom Park
What: High School Students Present 20 Iconic Black North Carolinians
Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026, from 4-6 PM
Location: NC Freedom Park, 218 N. Wilmington St, Raleigh NC
Greetings!
Students from Middle Creek High School have partnered with the African American Heritage Commission and the NC Dept. of Natural & Cultural Resources to produce an event we're calling "Still We Speak: When History Speaks, We Listen." The students will be "teaching" at Freedom Park in downtown Raleigh. The students have researched the 20 voices of the park and will be on hand to deliver informational presentations for each voice. Other students have produced creative interpretations of the park's voices (paintings, poems, digital art, etc.). The school's jazz band will be on hand to play music by NC composers like Thelonius Monk, John Coltrane, and Nina Simone.
While the event is open to the entire community, we are intentionally inviting elders from area senior living communities because we hope to encourage inter-generational dialogue and learning at this event. Kids will be learning from elders who actually lived through the history they have researched!
The event will take place on Thursday, April 16th from 4-6 PM at NC Freedom Park. For more information about the park, click this link: https://aahc.nc.gov/north-carolina-freedom-park
We'd love to see you there!
Matt Scialdone, NBCT, Middle Creek High School
NC Freedom Park, 218 N. Wilmington St, Raleigh NC