University of Minnesota Students Prepare for second-ever MLK Immersion Trip

By: Samantha Siedow

March 7, 2025

After six weeks of preparation, students in the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Presidential Emerging Scholars programs at the University of Minnesota are finally packing for the second-ever civil rights immersion trip.

The MLK program, an academic advising and social justice education program within the College of Liberal Arts, primarily serves Black, Indigenous and other students of color. The program was founded following the 1969 Morrill Hall takeover, in which Black student activists protested for greater diversity among students and faculty, the establishment of ethnic studies programs and expanded student support services.

The program debuted the MLK Immersion class, designed to engage students in the MLK and PES programs beyond a classroom setting, in 2024. Participants take a civil rights-focused class to learn historical context for an all-expenses-paid trip to the South over the university’s spring break.

Last year’s immersion class visited key sites from the Civil Rights Movement and heard from past and present-day activists across several cities in Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi.

This year, 16 students are in the semester-long course led by Evan Johnson, the university associate director of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Johnson also advises in the African American and African Studies, American Studies and Comparative U.S. Race and Ethnicity minor programs.

Johnson’s classroom style isn’t the typical lecture. Students write poems, listen to music and participate in small and large group discussions to keep them engaged with the content.

There was laughter every class, but it was common to see students cry when learning about and confronting emotionally difficult lessons.

The 2025 trip will take students to several historic locations, including:

Memphis, Tennessee

Jackson, Mississippi

Glendora, Mississippi

Philadelphia, Mississippi

Montgomery, Alabama

Selma, Alabama

Sites on this year’s itinerary include the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center, the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Students will hear from speakers including Civil Rights Activist Mama Bettie Mae Fikes, who visited the university previously to commemorate the anniversary of Bloody Sunday, and Mayor James Young, the first Black mayor of Philadelphia, Mississippi.

The immersive nature of the trip helps students understand events beyond what they’d get from reading about it and feel emotionally connected to the historical context they learn in class, according to Johnson.

“We want students to get a perspective shift throughout this trip to really pay attention and routinely ask ‘What is this place experience or moment, how is this personally, locally, and larger societal-level wise -- how is that connected to me?’” Johnson said.

Johnson said structured discussions and emotional debriefs between site visits will provide students a space to process their experiences and rely on their classmates and faculty for support.

Philip Toweh, a senior English major in the Presidential Emerging Scholars program and artist, attended a similar MLK program immersion trip in 2019, before the experience was turned into a class.

“When I went on the first trip, it revolutionized my pen and my understanding of self,” Toweh said.

Growing up, Toweh said he often felt alienated as a Black man in a predominantly white area and he struggled to understand his identity. The immersion trip allowed him to see himself represented by other Black students and activists.

“So, why I chose to take this trip again is to grow further, but also just to celebrate my journey and see where I've come so far,” Toweh said. “It feels like a homecoming, in a sense.”

Learning about the accomplishments of Black people in the MLK Immersion Class is a welcome change from an education that has focused on the achievements of white men, Toweh said.

“A very important thing for me, it makes me extremely happy just to sit down in this class, is that I get to hear about myself,” Toweh said. “I get to hear about the greatness that people who look like me have accomplished, and that installs within me so much self-confidence.”

Ellen Chinema, a 20-year-old second-year human physiology major from St. Paul said when applying to the university, she was drawn to the MLK program’s emphasis on student activism. In high school, Chinema led a multicultural group where she organized community activist speakers and arranged accommodations for student protests.

“MLK was a great way for me to still be studious and also put what matters to me the most at the forefront,” Chinema said.

Chinema, who is Black, has spent her life in predominantly white spaces. She said the MLK program has provided her with a much-needed sense of belonging.

Inspired by a high school trip to Washington, D.C., Chinema said she felt compelled to take part in not just the MLK program, but the immersion experience specifically.

“Seeing those stories in real life, I really needed to be in those places,” Chinema said. “I feel like the immersion trip, that's an experience that you’re not going to get anywhere else.”

Chinema said having the structured class leading up to the immersion trip has been important to provide both historical education and give students the language and framework to articulate their emotions and experiences ahead of time.

“We're getting a certain amount of support from our peers and the staff,” she said. “They’re giving us the vocabulary, giving us the education to really be able to pinpoint how we're feeling and take that on and share that with other people. This trip means a lot to me.”

Zacharias Khan, a second-year student majoring in political science and American history with a focus on African American legal history, said signing up for the MLK program was one of the best decisions he has made.

Khan, who attended the 2024 immersion trip, said as soon as he found out the trip was happening again, he knew he needed to join.

“To put it bluntly, there's no good way to actually prepare for this,” Khan said. “It's kind of difficult to describe until you've actually experienced it yourself and then it begins to make more sense.”

Khan, who is biracial, said the trip helped him better understand spatial injustice and his own racial identity.

“It’s life-changing, there’s no other way to put it,” Khan said.