Coastal Journey 2026

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 a dwindling number of 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 Haitian Monument (commemorating the soldiers recruited from present-day Haiti to fight in the Revolutionary War) and the African American Family Monument (with its inscription by Maya Angelou), an indigo dyeing experience, a Gullah family farm, and other sites give us insight into the rich African American history of this area.

We'll also look forward to distinctive Gullah and other culinary experiences..

More enslaved Africans first set foot on land in the "Holy City" 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 1862, Robert Smalls commandeered a Confederate steamboat in that harbor and piloted it to freedom, going on to become the U.S. Navy's first Black captain and a five-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

In June 2015 at Mother Emanuel AME, founded in 1816, 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 two-night stay around the International African American Museum (on the former Gadsden’s Wharf, where tens of thousands of enslaved Africans were first brought to the United States) and worship at Mother Emanuel.

We'll also visit other important locations, including the:

• McLeod Plantation Historic Site, once a leader in local cotton production thanks to its enslaved Gullah Geechee people, whose descendants continued to live on the site until the 1980s
• Old Slave Mart Museum, a former auction site and the first U.S. museum about slavery, with a focus on the horrific domestic slave trade
• Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture (housed in the Avery Normal School) 
• Eastside neighborhood, with businesses like family owned Hannibal’s Kitchen (fried fish, BBQ ribs, Hoppin’ John, and other soul food) and the home/workshop museum of Philip Simmons, the celebrated blacksmith.

And, more food of the Low Country--think stone ground grits, benne wafers, collard greens, she-crab soup, South Carolina bbq, fried green tomatoes, and more! 

We anticipate a pre-trip potluck and informational meeting (likely Sunday 1 March) to which all participants are 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.

In addition to our major stops, we'll also be pointing out (if not always visiting) other sites. For example:

• in Cheraw, we'll admire the contributions of native son and jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie,
• we'll pause in Alcolu to reflect on the 1944 arrest, trial, and conviction (later overturned) of 14-year-old George Stinney, the youngest confirmed person executed in the United States in the 20th century, for the alleged murder of two white girls,
• in Orangeburg, we'll learn about the February 1968 massacre that left three South Carolina State University students dead and 28 wounded in protests against segregation,
• on scenic St. Helena Island, we'll visit the Penn Center, one of the nation’s first schools for formerly enslaved people.

We'll have some evening gatherings as well as other more impromptu opportunities for reflection and sharing. The experience is very much co-created by all the participants together.

Please note itinerary details are subject to change.

Anthony L. Clay is excited to be a historian and guide for the Coastal Journey and other CFS racial justice trips.

Since 2009, he's served Carolina Friends School as its first Director of Advancement and as its first Director of Extended Learning (Summer Programs, Extended Day, after-school classes and music lessons, and travel and other enrichment opportunities). He's now founding head of the School's Institute for Teaching and Learning.

Anthony earned baccalaureate degrees magna cum laude in History and in International Relations 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 racial justice-focused bus tours of the South for adults and high school students and in 2016, 2019, and 2023 Durham civil rights programs for CFS staff. Each May he spends a week helping guide CFS Middle Schoolers on a civil rights experience in Alabama and Georgia and facilitated 2023, 2024, and 2025 Beloved Community Journeys for educators and other adults.

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, he also helps facilitate the Quaker Journey to northern England, offered in 2018, 2024, and 2026. 

Ron Lipscomb is a Carolina Friends Middle School social studies teacher with a B.A. in African American Studies from The University of Virginia and a master's in Middle Grades Education from Liberty University.

For several years, Ron worked in Virginia's Halifax County School District as a social studies teacher and 8th grade history team lead and then as an elementary music teacher. Regardless of the position, colleagues refer to him as "happy," "enthusiastic," and "adventurous!"

Full bio coming soon!

Here's what participants have had to say about our past racial justice trips....

I feel transformed. Not sure where I'm going to land after this experience, but know I won't be the same person as I was before the trip.

What was most meaningful for me were the visceral experiences of being in these places, standing on the ground where they happened, understanding on a more encompassing level the magnitude and depth of our racial history and the unhealed individual and national wounds we can't continue to ignore.

I did some grieving and alot of gratitude practices as I moved through each site. I found hope in meeting and hearing from people who lived through these times and also ones who are currently and continually working on the goal of racial equity.

Participants shared personal stories of overcoming hardships and discrimination, of meeting hatred with love, and provided real time models that are so inspiring! I felt trusted with their tender experiences. I felt challenged to explore myself and new ideas and I felt safe to say my truths. Thank you one and all.

The past came alive for us, tears fell, and lives changed. I gained incredible knowledge…and made a commitment to work for justice, equality, and human rights in whatever ways I can. Everyone should take advantage of this transforming journey. 

This is a powerful trip that should be experienced by as many people as possible. 

I now feel more authentic in my effort to join with others to do what my heart always wished to do. What a gift.

The $2,095 tuition includes:

• transportation via air-conditioned charter
• double-occupancy hotel lodging*
• all meals except a brown bag lunch for the first day and perhaps one Charleston dinner
• all admission fees and guest speaker honoraria
• chauffeur gratuity
• 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 an experienced historian and tour leader

* single rooms are available for a $795 supplement (lodging is expensive in downtown Charleston and Savannah!)

The tuition will not include:

• optional evening or other activities
• room service and other hotel incidentals
• alcohol with a meal
• trip/travel insurance

We're glad to work with you on alternative financial arrangements, including payment timetable..

We'd love to have you and a diverse group of participants "get on board" for this powerful personal and community journey. We may have some tuition assistance funds available to support individuals who couldn't afford to go otherwise.

If you're in a position to do so, a tax-deductible gift added to the overall tuition amount can increase our program funds and expand access. Thanks for your consideration!

Registration is open via this Google form.

We hope you'll consider other transformational travel-learning opportunities. If you'd like us to keep you updated (including about the opening of registration), please complete this brief notification form.

If you have questions about mobility demands or other tour particulars, please contact Anthony L. Clay at ExtendedLearning@cfsnc.org.

Explore the history of Quakerism by retracing the 17th-century footsteps of George Fox, founder of the Religious Society of Friends--and of Margaret Fell, an early supporter and later his wife--through the beautiful Lake District of northern England.

And, find adventure, learning, and reflection in community. In addition to being a nourishing experience for us individually, the Journey is a wonderful way to deepen relationships and build a stronger sense of community among F/friends and Friends institutions.

Learn more about the Quaker Journey.

Beloved Community Journey participants and other curious adults can join a Fall 2025 weekend immersion experience in Wilmington, exploring historical and contemporary aspects of race through three themes...

• Gullah Geechee and other African-Americans in coastal Carolina 
• the 1898 Wilmington race massacre
• Black Lives Matter and other racial justice efforts

...at multiple historic sites...

• Poplar Grove Plantation
• Bellamy Mansion Museum of History and Design
• 1898 Monument and Memorial Park
• University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Learn more about Racial Myth and Memory: A Wilmington Case Study.

If you'd like us to keep you updated on this or other transformational travel-learning experiences, please complete this brief notification form. 

Explore the connections between race and the rich musical history and traditions--blues, gospel, country, rock, and more--in Memphis and Mississippi.

We'll fly in and out of Memphis and use a comfortable charter bus during our stay. We'll also enjoy distinctive cuisine from local places like The Rendezvous, serving barbecue since 1948.

We'll search out live music (on Beale Street and beyond) and meet music historians and performers.

And, if we're lucky, we might be able to catch a special musical event (for example, Clarksdale's Birthplace of American Music Festival or Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival).

Memphis

We'll visit the legendary Sun Studio, Elvis' Graceland home, the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum, the Blues Hall of Fame Museum, and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel (where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated).

Mississippi 

We'll:

• experience diverse musical genres at the GRAMMY Museum in Cleveland
• follow the Blues Trail, including stops at the
  • B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola
  • Delta Blues Museum and Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art in Clarksdale
  • Gateway to the Blues Museum in Tunica
• cross the Mighty Mississippi into Arkansas for the Delta Cultural Center in Helena (home to radio's fabled King Biscuit Blues Time).

We'll also:

• learn about 14-year-old Emmett Till around Greenwood
• visit the Mound Bayou Museum in the country's oldest all-Black municipality, founded in 1887
• be inspired by the activism of the late Fannie Lou Hamer in Mound Bayou and her hometown of Ruleville.