Five Emory University students participated in a civil rights tour that culminated in a reenactment of the 1965 march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama. Sam Cherribi, a teaching professor in the Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies department and visiting faculty and adjunct professor in the economics department, led the tour from March 6 to 9.
This is the second year Emory students have participated in the tour organized by the A. D. King Foundation, a non-profit organization that strives to promote non-violent social change strategies and youth empowerment. Cherribi first participated in the march in 2023. In 2024, he led first group of Emory students to embark on the experience.
Cherribi said participants visited the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Legacy Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum and the Perry County Jail. The tour departed from Atlanta Metropolitan State College alongside buses from nearby counties and other Atlanta schools, including Spelman College and Atlanta Technical College. The tour also included an Alabama State University event honoring the 60th anniversary of the march on Selma. The journey concluded with the reenactment of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Cherribi stressed the importance of honoring the march on Selma and continuing its legacy.
“It’s a founding moment for redefining America and from here, from the deep South,” Cherribi said. “It’s about voting rights. It’s about dignity as a human being. It’s about liberty. It’s about recognizing part of the American society that was being forgotten.”
Additionally, Cherribi also emphasized the worldwide impact of the march, which called for voting rights for African Americans.
“It’s not anymore just an American message,” Cherribi said. “It’s a global message for all the people who have to be considered as citizens, as human beings.”
In the first year of the tour, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the march’s reenactment. While Cherribi acknowledged that Harris’ participation brought recognition in 2024, he said that this year’s atmosphere felt “vibrant” and “creative.”
“It was just very joyful,” Cherribi said. “Every year it has something magical because on that bridge, you don’t know who you’ll meet.”
Emory students also traveled on the tour alongside former Georgia State Representative Tyrone Brooks and the Mayor of South Fulton, Ga. Khalid Kamau, according to Cherribi.
Maxwell Woods (22Ox, 25B), who takes Cherribi’s Economic Development in Africa and the Middle East class, said he felt unity throughout the march.
“One of the most impactful things was getting to experience the number of people from different backgrounds coming together for the march,” Woods said.
The civil rights tour also illuminated the need for more progress toward social justice within the Emory community and the country, according to Woods. He remarked on the relevance of the message of the march on Selma to today.
“It’s something that’s important to be integrated into every student in our generation and for generations to come,” Woods said.
William Voigt (24Ox, 26C), a teaching assistant for Cherribi’s Economic Development in Africa and the Middle East class, said he appreciated hearing the perspectives of the many civil rights leaders and students who participated in the tour.
“It was really just impactful to be there, to chat with people, to get to hear voices that maybe we so often don’t get to hear firsthand at Emory,” Voigt said.
Despite the civil rights advancements made since 1965, Cherribi emphasized the need for more work in the struggle for equity and justice, including fostering economic prosperity. He reflected on continued poverty and economic stagnation in Selma.
“Selma, but also Montgomery and parts of Birmingham, they were much better in the ’60s than now [with] more bustling economic activity,” Cherribi said. “We gained on civil rights, but we didn’t gain on economic activity.”
Cherribi also related observations from the tour to the Emory community and Atlanta.
“For people to be here and to be at Emory, or to be at any other university here in Atlanta, is to be in the heart of the Civil Rights Movement,” Cherribi said.
