Racial Myth & Memory I

October or November tour dates will be finalized in Spring 2023.

We depart Durham on Saturday morning in a comfortable small charter bus for the three-hour drive to Charlottesville through scenic Virginia countryside and return Sunday evening.

We'll be adding specifics about special guests, our second lunch restaurant, and other logistics. Please note itinerary details are subject to change..

Monticello was a 5,000-acre working plantation where over 400 enslaved individuals lived and worked during Jefferson's lifetime. Learn about the men, women, and children who built Jefferson's home, planted his crops, tended his gardens, and helped run his household and raise his children.

Explore the histories and legacies of James and Dolley Madison, the Enslaved Community, and the Constitution as you journey through the landscape and inside the Madisons' home, Montpelier.

Highland was the sporadic residence of fifth president James Monroe from 1799 to 1828 and a working plantation home to 53 enslaved men, women, and children who performed the bulk of its production and maintenance.

Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe all served on the University's founding Board of Visitors. 

In its first decades the largest population of individuals living on Grounds at the University after students were enslaved African Americans. In histories of UVA, enslaved African Americans largely went unnamed and sometimes even unmentioned. the campus of the University of Virginia,

More recently, UVA has been more explicitly wrestling with its challenging past, including physically through the 2011 Kitty Foster Memorial and the 2020 Memorial to Enslaved Laborers.

This park's centerpiece was the bronze sculpture, unveiled in 1924, of Confederate general Robert E. Lee astride his horse Traveller.

Debate over the renaming of the park and possible removal of the statue because of the Confederacy's defense of slavery led to the Unite the Right Rally and a violent clash at and near this site on August 12, 2017, resulting in the deaths of three people and injuries to scores of others.

The statue was permanently removed from the park in July 2021.

In addition to our major stops, we'll enjoy:

• a delicious lunch at the circa 1784 Michie Tavern
• apple cider, apple cider donuts, and breathtaking views from Carter Mountain Orchard (you might even decide to carry home a bag of apples!)
• a stroll and dinner along the tree-lined Downtown Mall with the First Amendment Monument, City Hall, local bookstores, Chaps Ice Cream (with a '50s ice cream parlor feel), historic buildings, and the country’s oldest self-propelled carousel (1910).

We'll also have time for reflection and sharing.

We anticipate one pre-trip potluck and informational meeting to which all participants will be invited.

We also hope interest warrants at least one post-trip potluck open to all travelers.

We're glad to include anyone at a distance via video-conferencing.

Depending on the response to the Beloved Community Journey and the Charlottesville and Wilmington case studies, we'd love to offer a Summer 2025 trip to Charleston and Savannah.

Charleston

More enslaved Africans first set foot on land in Charleston than anywhere else in North America, and the interstate slave trade was just as significant there. It's no wonder John C. Calhoun and other South Carolina political figures resisted abolition at all costs and that the first shots of the Civil War came at Fort Sumter, in Charleston Harbor.

In June 2015 at Mother Emanuel AME, one of the South's oldest Black churches, the pastor and eight parishioners were gunned down during Scripture study by a young white supremacist. The church is on a street still named for Calhoun.

We'll build our visit around the International African American Museum (opening in 2023) and other important sites, from the McLeod Plantation Historic Site to the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, housed in the Avery Normal School.

Savannah

Savannah is America's first planned city, and 22 of its 24 squares remain. The trans-Atlantic slave trade brought many African-Americans through its port, and many of them formed the unique Gullah Geechee culture of the coastal communities in Georgia and South Carolina.

The Pin Point Heritage Museum, located in an oyster and crab factory on the banks of the Moon River, shares the language, religion, foodways, and stories of this Gullah Geechee community, which occupies the largest African-American owned waterfront property on the East Coast.

Sapelo Island, a 20 minute ferry ride from the mainland, features a National Estuarine Research Reserve, the mansion once owned by North Carolina tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds, Jr., and the Hog Hammock community, permanent home to about 70 full-time residents, many of whom are descended from the enslaved laborers of Sapelo's plantations. 

The First African Baptist Church (home of North America's oldest black congregation), the Owens-Thomas House & Slave Quarters Museum, the King-Tisdell Cottage, the African American Family Monument, and other sites give us insight into the rich African American history of Savannah. 

Stay tuned as we announce our second trip leader!

Anthony returned to Carolina Friends in August 2009 as the first Director of Advancement, and in 2016 became the School's first Director of Extended Learning, which includes Summer Programs, Extended Day, after-school classes and music lessons, travel opportunities, and other enrichment options for students, adults, and families. He's also now helping launch and lead the School's new institute for teaching and learning.

He earned baccalaureate degrees magna cum laude in International Relations and History and an Asian Studies Certificate at American University and then completed an M.A. in History and received Phi Beta Kappa honors at Emory University. 

Anthony has worked as a teacher (in subjects including U.S. history, government and politics, debate, and economics), college counselor, and advisor at Holland Hall School (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Raleigh Charter High School, Durham Academy, and CFS (2002-2005).

Much of his research and teaching has focused on the intersection of politics and culture--especially race--since World War II. An Arkansas native, he helped create and lead civil rights bus tours of the South for high school students and in 2016 and 2019 Durham civil rights experiences for CFS staff.

Anthony has served in leadership and advisory roles for various professional organizations and non-profits, including Student U, Junior Leadership Durham, Youth Leadership Tulsa, Youth Services of Tulsa, GLSEN, Habitat for Humanity, and the Southern and National Associations for College Admission Counseling.

A CFS alum parent of two, Anthony is also helping organize the Summer 2024 Quaker Journey retracing early Friends history in Northern England's breathtaking Lake District.

Tour tuition will be finalized in Summer 2023 and tentatively include:

• transportation via air-conditioned charter coach
• one night of double-occupancy hotel lodging*
• one breakfast and two lunches
• all admission fees and guest speaker honoraria
• on-board live and multi-media programming
• resource materials about tour destinations, civil rights history, contemporary social justice issues, and other relevant topics
• the services of experienced tour leaders

* individual rooms will be available for a supplement

The tuition won't include:

• Saturday evening dinner at restaurant of choice along the eight-block Downtown Mall
• incidental purchases, including at Carter Mountain Orchards and other stops
• room service and other hotel incidentals
• alcohol with a meal
• trip/travel insurance

A deposit will be due at the time of application and refundable if we can fill your space.

We'd love to have you and a diverse group of participants "get on board" for this powerful personal and community journey. We'll have some funds available to help Carolina Friends staff members participate and, thanks to trip revenues, a very modest amount for educators in charter and traditional public schools as well as independent schools who couldn't afford to go without partial support.

Registration will open in Summer 2023 as soon as we're able to confirm dates and other details.

If you'd like us to keep you updated on this or other study trips (including the opening of registration), please complete this brief notification form.