Sojourn to the Past

Sojourn to the Past Sojourn Project promotes equality and civil rights across America through life-changing trips through the South.

Inspired by iconic civil rights leaders, we empower students, law enforcement, and others to lead with empathy, equality, and civility nation. Sojourn to the Past is a non-profit organization that has, since 1999, led thousands of students on a life-changing educational journey through the hallowed sites of the Civil Rights Movement. Students meet and travel with veterans of the Freedom Struggle a

nd connect historic events to contemporary issues as part of their experience. Sojourn’s vision is to inspire young adults to become engaged citizens and community leaders who promote social justice through nonviolence.

Mississippi has lost another extraordinary voice.Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter ...
09/06/2026

Mississippi has lost another extraordinary voice.

Cassandra Wilson, the two-time Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and 2022 NEA Jazz Master, has died at 70.

Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, Cassandra carried the sounds, stories and history of the South with her throughout an extraordinary career. Jazz, blues, folk, country, gospel—she refused to let her voice be confined to a single category.

At Sojourn Project, we travel through Mississippi because we believe that understanding a place means listening to its stories.

We walk through Jackson and learn about Medgar Evers. We hear the stories of those who challenged injustice. We meet people who carry that history forward.

But history isn't carried only through museums, memorials and textbooks.

It is carried through music, art, and voices like Cassandra Wilson's....

The blues and jazz traditions she embraced grew from the same Southern soil that holds some of the most painful and transformative chapters of American history. Her music reminded the world that Mississippi's story is not simply one of struggle—it is also a story of creativity, resilience, culture and extraordinary beauty.

Cassandra Wilson carried Mississippi with her wherever she went.

Now her voice becomes part of the history we must continue to carry forward.

Rest in peace, Cassandra Wilson. 1955–2026. ❤️

This wasn’t that long ago.69 years ago today, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford walked toward Little Rock Central High Schoo...
09/05/2026

This wasn’t that long ago.

69 years ago today, 15-year-old Elizabeth Eckford walked toward Little Rock Central High School, one of nine Black students chosen to integrate the school.

She walked alone.

Seeing these images in color changes our perspective. It strips away some of the distance we place between ourselves and history. These weren’t characters in a textbook. They were teenagers, parents, neighbors and community members.

Elizabeth was met with hatred simply because of the color of her skin. People screamed at her, threatened her and made it clear they believed she did not belong.

That is why this history still matters.

Hatred rarely begins with violence. It begins with words. With labels. With deciding someone is “other,” “unwanted” or somehow less deserving of dignity, safety and belonging.

🦋 At Sojourn Project, our students don't just read about the Little Rock Nine. They travel to Little Rock, stand in front of Central High School and learn from Elizabeth Eckford and Minnijean Brown-Trickey themselves.

Today, honor Elizabeth Eckford and the Little Rock Nine by remembering their courage, but also by examining our own.

Guard your words. Guard your heart. Guard your conscience.

And when you see someone being treated as though they don't belong, have the courage to show up.

Learn History. Change the Future.

🤍Gloria Steinem spent her life reminding us that change happens when people find the courage to raise their voices, and ...
09/03/2026

🤍Gloria Steinem spent her life reminding us that change happens when people find the courage to raise their voices, and then use those voices together.

A journalist, activist, organizer and trailblazer, Steinem became one of the most recognizable leaders of the modern women’s movement. But her work was never simply about women. She understood that the struggles for equality are connected, and throughout her life she stood alongside those fighting racism, discrimination and injustice.

Her words feel especially meaningful today:
“When unique voices are united in a common cause, they make history.”

🦋That belief is at the heart of what we teach at Sojourn Project. History is not only made by the names we read about in textbooks. It is made when ordinary people refuse to remain silent, stand together and decide that the world can — and must — be better.

Today we remember Gloria Steinem, 1934–2026, and a lifetime spent pushing America closer to its promise of equality.

May we honor her legacy by continuing to use our own unique voices.

Learn History. Change the Future.

When you think of Gandhi, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?Peace? Nonviolence? Civil disobedience? The image of...
09/02/2026

When you think of Gandhi, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Peace? Nonviolence? Civil disobedience? The image of a man who helped inspire movements for justice around the world?

For many of us, Gandhi is almost synonymous with nonviolence. His philosophy influenced generations of activists, including leaders of the American Civil Rights Movement like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

But history is rarely as simple as the version we learned in school.

Gandhi was a complicated human being, with beliefs and actions that deserve examination alongside his contributions. Learning history shouldn’t be about turning people into flawless heroes or simple villains. It should be about understanding the whole person, the world they lived in, the choices they made, and the impact those choices had.

🦋At Sojourn Project, we believe history becomes more powerful when we’re willing to look beyond the familiar story.

So we want to know: When you hear the name Gandhi, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?

Learn History. Change the Future.

09/01/2026

Sobering. Humbling. Empathetic.

Just a few words that begin to describe what you feel when standing face-to-face with a history that changed millions of lives.

That’s exactly what happens when we visit the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama.

You don’t simply learn about the history of racial terror and lynching. You stand in its presence. You see the names. You confront the lives stolen, the families forever changed, and the communities that still carry that history today.

These moments are why immersive education matters.

🦋 Learn History. Change the Future.

In 1886, a Black teenager named Frederick Douglass Patterson arrived ready for high school in Greenfield, Ohio. He had c...
09/01/2026

In 1886, a Black teenager named Frederick Douglass Patterson arrived ready for high school in Greenfield, Ohio. He had completed the required work and carried the promotion card to prove it.

There was just one high school in town.

And because Frederick was Black, the superintendent refused to let him in.

His father, Charles R. Patterson, had been born enslaved in Virginia in 1833. Now, more than 50 years later, he found himself fighting another system determined to limit his family because of the color of their skin.

Charles sued.

In April 1887, the court ordered Greenfield to admit Frederick under the same rules as white students. Frederick returned to school and graduated the following year. He later attended Ohio State University, became the university’s first Black varsity football player, taught history, and eventually returned home to help lead his family's business.

And that business made history, too.

C.R. Patterson & Sons transitioned from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles, becoming what the Smithsonian identifies as the only African American-owned and operated automobile company in American history.

There is an incredible full-circle moment in this story.

The same community that once fought to keep Frederick out of its high school would later use school buses built by the Patterson family business to transport its children.

One father refused to accept that his son's education should end because of racism. One lawsuit opened a schoolhouse door, and what came through it became American history.

This is why these stories matter.

Because history isn't only about the doors that were closed. It's about the people who fought to open them.

Learn History. Change the Future.

On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freed...
08/30/2026

On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C. for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

They came demanding equality, opportunity and justice. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, words that would echo across generations.

But the March on Washington was more than one speech. It was the result of years of organizing, sacrifice and ordinary people refusing to accept an unequal America.

At Sojourn Project, we believe history like this must be more than a date students memorize. We help young people understand the people, places and courage behind the Civil Rights Movement, and what that history asks of us today.

Learn History. Change the Future.

Sometimes resistance looks like a march, it looks like thousands of people choosing whose voice deserves to be heard.Mor...
08/29/2026

Sometimes resistance looks like a march, it looks like thousands of people choosing whose voice deserves to be heard.

More than two decades after bell hooks published Communion: The Female Search for Love, the book reached the New York Times paperback bestseller list for the first time — after JD Vance announced a memoir with the same title.

Readers responded not simply with outrage, but with action. They bought bell hooks. They shared her words. Independent bookstores promoted her work. Thousands joined an online book club dedicated to Communion.

Sales surged, introducing a new generation to one of America's most important Black feminist writers.

bell hooks spent her life writing about racism, poverty, patriarchy, love and the power of finding our voices. Nearly five years after her death, those words are still teaching, challenging and inspiring.

She once wrote, “Coming to voice is an act of resistance.”

History survives when we choose to learn it, share it and refuse to let important voices disappear.

Learn History. Change the Future.

In 1948, the first Black disc jockey in the South went on the air in Memphis.But radio wasn’t even his full-time job.Nat...
08/28/2026

In 1948, the first Black disc jockey in the South went on the air in Memphis.

But radio wasn’t even his full-time job.

Nat D. Williams was a history teacher at Booker T. Washington High School, where Black students were receiving an education that was deliberately underfunded and, at the time, even shorter than the education provided to white students.

So Nat D. fought to change that.

He helped raise money for his school, pushed for a fourth year to be added to the Black high school curriculum, mentored students, edited the school newspaper, coached young people on their speeches and even drove neighborhood children to school in his own car.

Then, when the school day ended, he made history somewhere else.

On October 25, 1948, Nat D. finished teaching, drove to WDIA and sat behind a microphone at 4 PM. The struggling Memphis station had decided to try something no other station in the city was doing: speak directly to its Black audience.

Nat D. brought his own records from home, his opening words became famous:

“It’s Nat Dee on the Jamboree.”

The audience responded.

Within a year, WDIA had become one of Memphis’ most popular stations, and by 1949 its entire roster of disc jockeys was Black—a first for an American radio station.

Its influence would stretch far beyond Memphis, helping launch and elevate voices including B.B. King and Nat D.’s own former student, Rufus Thomas.

And through it all, Nat D. kept teaching.

For 24 years, he balanced the classroom and the radio studio, using both to educate, entertain, open doors and strengthen his community.

Perhaps that is the most remarkable part of his story.

Nat D. Williams didn’t just teach history.

And every morning, he went back to school to help prepare the next generation to make some of their own.

Learn History. Change the Future.

Doing good doesn’t need to be shared, celebrated or bragged about. Sometimes you simply do it because it’s the right thi...
08/27/2026

Doing good doesn’t need to be shared, celebrated or bragged about. Sometimes you simply do it because it’s the right thing to do.

When Whitney Houston recorded Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” the song became a worldwide phenomenon, generating significant royalties for Dolly.

Years later, Dolly revealed that she used some of that money to invest in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Nashville, purchasing and revitalizing property there.

“I thought, ‘This is the house that Whitney built.’”

There is something incredibly powerful about that full-circle moment. A song written by a country music legend, transformed into one of the most iconic recordings of all time by a Black woman, and some of the money it generated quietly finding its way back into a Black community.

Dolly didn’t make the investment for applause. In fact, most people didn't know the story for years.

Kindness doesn’t always need an audience, sometimes the greatest impact happens when nobody is watching.

🦋At Sojourn Project, we believe that understanding stories like these reminds us that each of us has the ability to make a difference, whether the world sees it or not.

Learn History. Change the Future.

We will always love you Dolly! 🩷

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