The Civil Rights Journey
Walk · Witness · Remember
Worth Walk × CR Journeys × All Thrive Collective
History you can stand in.
Stories you can carry home.
A proposed youth-development experience for All Thrive Collective.
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The bigger story
CR Journeys begins with Worth Walk.
Identity
Helping young people understand their intrinsic value and who they are.
Belonging
Creating spaces where young people are known, supported and connected.
Leadership
Preparing young people to make courageous choices and lead.
Exposure
Giving young people experiences that expand what they believe is possible.
The alignment · A shared question
How do we help young people not simply survive their circumstances — but actually thrive?
That is where Worth Walk, CR Journeys and All Thrive naturally intersect.
Why story matters
Young people need more than information.
Research from Emory University has found an association between knowing family history and stronger measures of identity, well-being and resilience.
When young people understand what people before them survived, built and changed, history becomes more than a chapter in a book.
"I know where I come from — and I know what I can become."
For Black young people
This is not somebody else's history.
This is part of their story.
The journey connects identity to a longer story of courage, resistance, creativity, sacrifice and possibility.
See the journey
Hear it from the students themselves.
Young people who walked these streets, stood in these places and came home with a stronger sense of who they are.
"I know where I come from — and I know what I can become."
Walk · Witness · Remember
A story worth standing in
Tuskegee: from isolation to leadership.
Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
West Point, 1932–1936
He endured years of deliberate social isolation — then went on to lead the Tuskegee Airmen into history.
The question for students
What happens when an environment refuses to affirm your value — but you refuse to let that environment define your value?
The story arc
Resilience is not only about surviving.
Outsider
A space refuses to welcome you.
Perseverance
You refuse to buckle.
Leadership
You grow into responsibility.
Pathway
Your resilience creates room for others.
That is the kind of history that becomes a mirror for a young person's own life.
The experience crosses cultures
This story is for everyone. Everyone borrows from its resilience, compassion and sacrifice.
We have guided Jewish middle and high school students — and many Jewish adults — through these journeys.
The history may not begin as their family story. But the humanity of the story becomes impossible to keep at a distance.
Empathy · Historical understanding · Shared humanity
The $16,000 moment
$16,000
raised in the room
At the end of a recent journey, a group of Jewish adults sat in our debrief and asked one question: "What are our next steps? What can we do?"
I told them we were bringing a majority Black group from Los Angeles — some who have never been to the South to hear their own story, some who have never had a Black history teacher. On the spot, they gave $16,000 so those students could come.
The experience did more than inform them. It moved them to act.
Why this matters now
Our young people are trying to hear truth through a lot of noise.
Social media can deliver a confident interpretation of history in 30 seconds. Algorithms can reinforce what is false. Political narratives can flatten complicated human stories into talking points.
CR Journeys helps clear some of the noise.
Our educational posture
We do not tell students what to think.
We give them enough proximity, context, primary history, human interaction and reflection to think more deeply for themselves.
So what is CR Journeys?
An immersive journey where history isn't studied — it's lived.
Students walk the ground, meet the people, and carry home life lessons no textbook can teach.
Place
Stand where history happened.
Context
Understand what happened and why.
Exchange
Encounter people, stories and perspectives.
Reflection
Connect the past to identity and choices today.
Voices students may meet
History told by the people who lived it.
Memphis
Elaine Turner
One of the Turner Sisters — the most arrested family in Memphis history.
Birmingham
Pastor Gwen Webb
Marched in the Children's March at 14, was arrested and jailed. Featured in an award-winning documentary, she now pastors in Birmingham.
Birmingham
Charles Woods
Head educator at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and our personal guide through Kelly Ingram Park.
Selma
Terry Chestnut
Son of J.L. Chestnut, Dr. King's lawyer. He leads our hop-on, hop-off bus tour of Selma.
The proposed journey
Five days. One connected story.
- Day 1MemphisCourage & sacrifice
- Day 2BirminghamYouth & resistance
- Day 3TuskegeeResilience & excellence
- Day 4MontgomeryLeadership & strategy
- Day 5AtlantaLegacy & what's next
Each city is not just a stop. It carries a developmental purpose.
What students actually experience
This is not five days of lectures.
- Historic sites & museums
- Guided storytelling
- Student reflection
- Community conversations
- Real foot soldiers who marched with — and without — Dr. King
- Shared meals & culture
- Joy, connection & fun
The goal is not simply to remember history. It is to see yourself as part of a story that is still being written.
What students carry home
Not just facts — a stronger sense of self.
Identity
"I know something about who I am and where I come from."
Resilience
"I have seen what people can endure and still become."
Empathy
"I can enter someone else's story without erasing my own."
Literacy
"I can recognize context, evidence and historical complexity."
Leadership
"I understand that ordinary people can shape history."
Purpose
"I can ask what my chapter should contribute."
Why All Thrive × CR Journeys
Our missions already overlap.
All Thrive
Youth well-being · Resilience · Possibility
Worth Walk Young & Well
Identity · Intrinsic Value · Purpose
CR Journeys
History becomes a lived tool for development.
This is not about fitting a trip into your mission. It is about building an experience from the mission outward.
The proposed experience
Keep the logistics clear.
- Format
- 5-day immersive Civil Rights journey
- Route
- Memphis → Birmingham → Tuskegee → Montgomery → Atlanta
- Core experience
- Hotels, charter transportation, facilitation, scheduled site admissions & programming
- Group design
- Final size and travel window shaped with All Thrive
- Risk & readiness
- Participant waivers, insurance planning and detailed trip operations
The investment
About
$1,700
per traveler without airfare
About
$2,300
per traveler with estimated airfare
Final airfare is confirmed before purchase. A $150 non-refundable deposit can hold a participant's place, with payment options designed to make the experience more accessible.
The question before the board
What could we build together?
Does this strengthen the identity, resilience, well-being and possibility All Thrive wants for young people?
Align
Choose the travel window, group size, route details and stories that matter most.
Shape
CR Journeys returns with the final itinerary, inclusions, airfare, payment schedule and approval plan.
Build
Launch the journey together — enroll students, rally support and travel.
If we are serious about helping young people thrive…
We have to give them more than information.
We have to give them identity, experiences, context and a story big enough to see themselves inside of.
Let's build the journey together.
All Thrive Collective × CR Journeys
Appendix · Due diligence
Who operates CR Journeys?
CR Journeys
A DBA / travel and experiential-learning arm of Worth Walk Young & Well, LLC.
Worth Walk
The larger youth-development ecosystem: identity, mentorship, education, leadership and meaningful experiences.
Partnership
Trip scope, participant responsibilities, payment terms, insurance expectations and cancellation policies are documented before travel.
Appendix · Readiness
Safety, risk & participant readiness.
Trip operations
Charter transportation, lodging, scheduled admissions, group movement and adult supervision.
Participant documents
Waivers, emergency contacts, medical information and conduct expectations.
Insurance
Company coverage plus clear guidance on optional travel/flight protection for participants.
Communication
Trip-leader dashboard, itinerary visibility, payment status and participant updates.