Legacy Museum and Montgomery Landmarks Inspire Students to Honor Civil Rights History
- Samantha Siedow
- Mar 18
- 5 min read
Updated: Apr 13
By: Samantha Siedow
March 13, 2025
Olubukunla De-Souza, a 20-year-old second year sociology of law, criminology and justice major from Shakopee, had wanted to visit the Legacy Museum for years to learn more about her heritage as a Black American.
When she discovered that the museum was one of the destinations on the University of Minnesota MLK 3000 immersion trip, she was thrilled to finally have the chance to fulfill her dream. Despite her initial excitement, De-Souza said she was taken aback by how emotionally difficult the long-awaited experience turned out to be.
“I’m not going to lie, it was almost a little traumatic just because there was just so much emotion,” De-Souza said.
Day 6 of the MLK 3000 immersion trip brought students and faculty to Montgomery, Alabama, where they visited historic sites like the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and Rosa Parks’ notable bus stop.
The first stop of the day was the Legacy Museum, a Black history and Civil Rights Movement museum built on the site of a cotton warehouse where enslaved Black people were forced to labor in bondage.
The museum’s immersive exhibits take visitors through the history of slavery, the evolution of the Civil Rights Movement, and the modern-day impact racial injustice has on American society.
As soon as De-Souza stepped inside, she said the weight of the exhibits hit her immediately. Initially, she was overwhelmed by the injustices and unfairness, but after a conversation with a classmate, her perspective shifted and she focused on the beauty in the resilience of civil rights activists.
In one of the final exhibits, a reflection room with photos and names of notable Civil Rights Movement activists, De-Souza said sadness poured over her.
“Seeing the extra space on the wall for new people that they were going to add made me sad, but also made me hopeful,” De-Souza said. “Like, hopefully, their life isn't being taken away or ending in a tragic way, but then on the flip side, we're going to have more people to progress us and help create actual good change.”
Winifred Gerald-Ugwu, a 17-year-old first-year political science and sociology of law criminology and justice major from Saint Cloud, said she was anxious about the mental toll the Legacy Museum would take, especially on a trip that seemed to be building up to it.
“It definitely did not disappoint in any way, emotionally, physically or even with the visuals of the museum,” Gerald-Ugwu said.
When she finished walking through the museum and stepped outside, Gerald-Ugwu said pride and a feeling of empowerment through knowledge replaced her anxiety.
Gerald-Ugwu said in the museum, and throughout the immersion trip, she has been surprised by how unfamiliar she was with many notable activists. She blamed the education system for giving a very basic overview of the Civil Rights Movement.
“The amount of people that are out there, the amount of courage that has been displayed that we know nothing about is disappointing,” Gerald-Ugwu saud.
A Tour of Historic Montgomery
Montgomery’s historical sites are more than just landmarks, they are testament to the struggle for civil rights and reflections of how history has influenced our current day, according to Jake Williams, an Alabama native who participated in the Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March and now leads tours through Montgomery.
Williams took students on a guided tour of places important to the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, including Rosa Parks’ bus stop and gathering spots of the Freedom Riders and the local NAACP chapter.
Williams grew up in rural Lowndes County, Alabama, and joked the word “poor” was invented to describe his family. Growing up through the height of the Civil Rights Movement in the Deep South, where he experienced rapid change firsthand, created his love for history and desire to preserve it for future generations.
“I think what set my company aside from others is that I can speak in the first person,” Williams said. “I actually experienced this, I didn't just read it in a book. I like to refer to myself as a child of the Civil Rights Movement and a product of the Jim Crow South.”
In 1965, Lowndes County was 80% Black and 20% white. However, only three Black people of the 5,122 eligible Black voters in the county could vote, according to Williams.
Williams was involved in civil rights activism from a young age. As a child, he walked with over 200 people — including many elderly people who had never cast a vote — to polling stations and showed them how to navigate the process.
Williams said the day he was old enough to vote, he registered immediately. Although he said his vote doesn’t often count in Alabama, a “ruby red” state in which Republicans control most federal and state offices, including a veto-proof majority in both legislative chambers, every statewide elected office and the entirety of the state Supreme Court, he has not missed a single election since.
For current activists, using their right to vote and using their finances in line with their ethical standards is the most impactful way to protest and enact change, according to Williams. Williams said he recently participated in boycotts of Target and Walmart, among other companies, who publicly shifted away from their diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
“People listen when you start talking about finance,” Williams said. “This is what got (Meta CEO) Mark Zuckerberg and all of those people up there bowing to kiss Trump's ring. It's because they're afraid of what's going to happen financially to their company.”
Gerald-Ugwu said seeing the physical locations of well-known civil rights moments along Williams’ tour made those moments feel more tangible.
“I think it's important for everyone to come on this trip, but I do know it's a privilege to be here because this is a once in a lifetime experience,” Gerald Ugwu said.
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, often referred to as the Lynching Memorial, is the nation’s first monument dedicated to people who died in racial terror lynchings. The memorial features 4,400 names etched into over 800 monuments—one for each primarily southern county where a lynching took place between 1877 and 1950. Each requires two pieces of documentation for inclusion.
De-Souza said seeing physical representations of people who were killed for no reason other than the color of their skin, including some who died protesting for civil rights, amplified her frustration with people not taking advantage of those rights.
“Honestly, even if you don't care about the history, as a citizen just think about the people that are alive that don't have that right to exercise their right to go vote,” De-Souza said.
