A core value of the Sumners Foundation is cultivating in Sumners Scholars a deeper understanding and appreciation of the principles that underpin America’s representative democracy. Reflecting this commitment, students in Texas Wesleyan University's 2024–2025 Sumners Scholarship program led a range of civic engagement initiatives, including voter registration drives and campus events such as debate nights and an election night watch party leading up to and on Election Day in November 2024.

The culmination of the academic year’s experiences came just after Spring Commencement, when Scholars Cesar Espino, Aubrey Hansen, Mica Magday, and Ariel Armstrong—joined by newly selected 2025 Scholars Karen Gutierrez, Daylan Harris, and Kehinde Hopkins—embarked on a powerful three-day journey through Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery, Alabama. The trip focused on key sites in the struggle for civil and voting rights during the 1950s and 1960s.

The journey began in Birmingham at the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, located near the historic Kelly Ingram Park and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. This site marks the starting point of the 1963 Children’s Crusade, when hundreds of young African American students, trained in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy of nonviolent resistance, marched for justice and met brutal opposition from police under Commissioner "Bull" Connor. The nearby church was tragically bombed later that year by the Ku Klux Klan, killing four young girls. Scholars also visited the Birmingham Jail, where Dr. King wrote his landmark “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” outlining the moral framework for nonviolent protest.

From Birmingham, the group traveled to Selma, a city synonymous with the battle for voting rights. There, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they stood where peaceful marchers were attacked on “Bloody Sunday” in March 1965—a moment that helped galvanize support for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. At the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute, students heard firsthand accounts of courageous young activists who risked everything to participate in the movement. “In today’s political climate, positive terms like ‘equity’ and ‘inclusion’ are polarizing,” noted Espino, “yet these were and are essential to ensuring full voting rights for all Americans.”

The final leg of the trip took the group to Montgomery. Their first stop was the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, an immersive experience tracing the evolution of racial injustice in the United States. The museum is located on the site where enslaved people were once forced to work and be sold. A walking tour led by Dr. Jill Gerloff took the group through key landmarks in civil rights history—including the site where Rosa Parks began the Montgomery Bus Boycott, the city's former slave auction blocks, and the Freedom Rides Museum, housed in the original Greyhound bus terminal. The tour concluded on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol, where Dr. King delivered his “How Long? Not Long” speech following the Selma to Montgomery march.

Reflecting on the experience, Gutierrez shared, “The lessons I gained from this trip have changed the way I see the world around me. It sparked conversations with my peers that I hope to continue far beyond college.”

The students were accompanied by faculty sponsors Dr. Jill Gerloff and Dr. Christopher Ohan. “There’s nothing like learning history on the ground where it happened,” said Dr. Ohan. Dr. Gerloff added, “Given the importance of voting and civil rights, I wish every Texas Wesleyan student could have this experience.”

To help fund future civic learning experiences for Texas Wesleyan students, please contact Dr. Ohan. To learn more about the Sumners Scholarship, visit txwes.edu/sumners. For voter registration information in Texas, visit VoteTexas.gov.