March 07, 2003
The trip, which begins today and ends Sunday, includes more than 30 Members of Congress. Participants will revisit historic sites in the Alabama cities of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma. In Birmingham, the group will visit the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four girls were killed in a 1963 bombing; in Montgomery, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Martin Luther King’ s first church; and in Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers were beaten back by Alabama State Troopers in 1965.
"I thought that this trip represented a great opportunity to show Anna and Paul these important sites," Lee said. "Seeing these testaments to the decades-long effort to right the injustice of racial discrimination is not just a way to understand the history of African Americans, but American history."
Riker is a Piedmont High cheerleader and choir member. She is also a Youth Court Juror and an intern at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center. "I am especially interested in the Civil Rights era because of my volunteer work at the Martin Luther King Freedom Center, where I have been learning about the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement," she said. "The Civil Rights struggle is still continuing to this day, so visiting some of the key landmarks of the movement should be a fascinating and powerful experience for me."
West attends Fremont High School where he is a star football player. West also serves as a volunteer-violence prevention trainer for Teens on Target/Youth Alive of Oakland and as a volunteer basketball coach. West said, "I look forward to the opportunity to learn about these monumental steps in the civil rights movement first hand and on the soil where they took place. I am a long-time student of the philosophy of non-violence demonstrated by Dr. King during the defining period in our nation’s history."
The students will return to Oakland on Sunday night.
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Congresswoman Barbara Lee Takes Two East Bay Students On Civil Rights Pilgrimage
Washington, DC - Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s second trip on the bi-annual Civil Rights Pilgrimage will be all the more special because two East Bay students, Anna Riker of Piedmont and Paul West of Oakland, are accompanying her. Lee arranged for Riker and West to participate in the Pilgrimage this weekend because both have demonstrated a keen interest in Dr. Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Era.The trip, which begins today and ends Sunday, includes more than 30 Members of Congress. Participants will revisit historic sites in the Alabama cities of Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma. In Birmingham, the group will visit the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four girls were killed in a 1963 bombing; in Montgomery, the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Martin Luther King’ s first church; and in Selma, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers were beaten back by Alabama State Troopers in 1965.
"I thought that this trip represented a great opportunity to show Anna and Paul these important sites," Lee said. "Seeing these testaments to the decades-long effort to right the injustice of racial discrimination is not just a way to understand the history of African Americans, but American history."
Riker is a Piedmont High cheerleader and choir member. She is also a Youth Court Juror and an intern at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Freedom Center. "I am especially interested in the Civil Rights era because of my volunteer work at the Martin Luther King Freedom Center, where I have been learning about the legacy of Dr. King and the Civil Rights movement," she said. "The Civil Rights struggle is still continuing to this day, so visiting some of the key landmarks of the movement should be a fascinating and powerful experience for me."
West attends Fremont High School where he is a star football player. West also serves as a volunteer-violence prevention trainer for Teens on Target/Youth Alive of Oakland and as a volunteer basketball coach. West said, "I look forward to the opportunity to learn about these monumental steps in the civil rights movement first hand and on the soil where they took place. I am a long-time student of the philosophy of non-violence demonstrated by Dr. King during the defining period in our nation’s history."
The students will return to Oakland on Sunday night.
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