This past March 2025, twenty-one PLNU students had the opportunity to attend the semi-annual Civil Rights Pilgrimage. This one-week journey gives students the opportunity to experience historic sites in the American Civil Rights Movement in cities such as Selma and Montgomery, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta, Georgia. Students and representatives from Samford University joined PLNU’s group for the trip.
The pilgrimage began as a passion project for Glen Laster, assistant director of the Public Safety Office and professor of sociology at PLNU. The idea came to Laster in 2004 — the same year he began serving PLNU’s students in Public Safety. During a Loveworks trip to Rwanda, he learned about the genocide against the Tutsi that occurred there in 1994. Encountering this challenging history made Laster want to dive deeper into African American history, especially the Civil Rights Movement.
“I always wondered how much I knew about African Americans in the United States,” Laster said. “God was [speaking] with me a couple of years later, and I decided I don’t know enough about who I am.”
Laster wanted to challenge himself personally by traveling to the American South to experience key sites of the Civil Rights Movement. He began in Selma, Alabama, having a friend from there who had taught him a lot about the history of the city and its significance. He then branched out to other cities.
A decade later, Laster’s personal interest trip turned into a multi-state journey in which students could participate. In 2014, eight people embarked on the first pilgrimage, including four students from the Black Student Union and four faculty, including Laster; Dr. Jamie Gates, professor of sociology; Dr. John Wu, professor of psychology; and Dr. Jeffrey Carr, retired associate vice president of Student Development and chief diversity officer at PLNU.
Glen Laster (left) and Michelle Browder during this year’s pilgrimage.
Students from Samford University and PLNU journeyed together for this year’s trip.
Laster believes the mix of museum trips, spiritual aspects like church visits, and active marches helps develop a deeper understanding of the history. He pointed out many of the most impactful civil rights gatherings in the 1960s started as church groups.
“For me a pilgrimage is something that you experience through the people, the environment,” he said. “[It’s] spiritually based. We went to churches just to see the people, and how they worship. A lot of them grew up there, so they had a lot of knowledge about what was going on at that time.”
Laster explained that in 2016, President Kerry Fulcher, Ph.D., who was provost at the time, began conversations about creating a full semester class that would accompany the trip. The class eventually formulated in 2022, with Laster teaching the course.
“The administration here was just profoundly on board with what we wanted to do,” Laster said. The class was especially helpful as it gave students more time to bond as a group and learn more history about the movement. The class incorporated guest lectures from PLNU Professors Lindsey Lupo, Ph.D.; Jamie Gates, Ph.D.; and Karl Martin, Ph.D., as well as a counselor from PLNU’s Wellness Center — a welcome resource as the students tackled challenging information in the class.
“One key piece students learn is that the Civil Rights Movement is not just part of history, but also something that continues in the present,” said Dr. Walter Augustine, vice president for intercultural engagement, retention & community success initiatives, who has helped lead the last two pilgrimages.
The first major site on the trip was the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama, which details important moments in the history of African Americans, including the transatlantic slave trade, segregation, and mass incarceration. Amen Etefa, a junior theology, justice, and peace major, said that the emotions that came as the students confronted painful moments in history made the visit more meaningful.
“That’s the difference between just a field trip and a pilgrimage,” Etefa said. “It’s this ongoing journey of capturing different things spiritually, physically, and emotionally. When I was there, I was facing every type of emotion you can think of.”
“That’s the difference between just a field trip and a pilgrimage. It’s this ongoing journey of capturing different things spiritually, physically, and emotionally. When I was there, I was facing every type of emotion you can think of.”
Another impactful location was the Mothers of Gynecology Museum, which commemorates the pivotal breakthroughs in the field of gynecology that were discovered through painful testing on enslaved African American teenage girls. Isis Benjamin, a political science student who graduated in May, was moved by this history and how this legacy of racial inequality still persists in healthcare today.
“[The museum] emphasized all of modern healthcare and how we’ve gotten there,” Benjamin said.
The Mothers of Gynecology Museum in Montgomery, Alabama.
Benjamin also explained that although she has often traveled to the South, this trip and Laster’s class gave her a historical perspective that gave her a deeper understanding of the history.
“Being Black American, you learn certain things at home, but you don’t get the nitty gritty,” she said. “It was really cool for me to learn a whole bunch more about the background, the blueprint that went into the Civil Rights Movement.”
The pilgrimage was scheduled to coincide with the commemoration of Bloody Sunday.
“Bloody Sunday was the Sunday in 1965 in which voting rights marchers marched out from Brown Chapel A.M.E. [African Methodist Episcopal] Church attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Augustine said. “[They] were met with police force where they used batons and tear gas to chase them back to the church.”
This year was the 60th anniversary of the march, and the commemoration attracted thousands of travelers, locals, and even Selma Foot Soldiers: people who had marched during Bloody Sunday and other 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery.
Defense attorney and Just Mercy author Bryan Stevenson, whose memoir was adapted into the eponymous film co-written and directed by PLNU alum Destin Daniel Cretton (01), led a service in Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church. His sermon made a big impact on Ava French, a first-year political science major.
“One of my favorite quotes from [Stevenson] on the trip is ‘We deny the beauty of justice when we refuse to tell the truth,’” French said. “I feel like the Lord made us to love and care for one another, and we need to know the truth — to respect and realize the true side of history.”
“I feel like the Lord made us to love and care for one another, and we need to know the truth — to respect and realize the true side of history.”
Stevenson’s message solidified French’s resolve to become a defense attorney and help ensure everyone has proper legal representation.
“This trip has changed my life in realizing that I want to be a defense lawyer [who] represents and protects those who have been wrongfully accused and incarcerated — and to bring the Lord into my practice.”
Following the service at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church was the Edmund Pettus Legacy Crossing, where participants marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in reverence and remembrance of the original protest. Hudson Gilbert, a political science major who graduated in May, described a moment when many marchers began to link arms and sing together as they crossed the bridge. All the PLNU students joined in.
“I think that moment signified solidarity,” Gilbert said. “For all of us to come together in that and walk through it, arm in arm, I think that was really powerful.”
One of the Selma Foot Soldiers who marched in 1965 was able to interact with PLNU students. She told the group she was filled with hope after meeting them.
“She said, ‘I can rest now because I know America is going to be in a good place because of our students,’” Laster said. “That’s light. We need to be the light of this world.”
After returning, many of the students expressed their appreciation for the pilgrimage. Some, like French, called it a crucial experience for students who want to make a positive societal impact.
“If you care about justice and peace, you need to experience the Civil Rights Pilgrimage,” French said. “Be prepared for your life to change, your eyes to be opened, for history to be told through the right lens. It will forever change your life.”
Watch the video below and hear more from the students, faculty, and staff who attended this year’s Civil Rights Pilgrimage:
