Herbert Lowe, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications (UFCJC) Journalism senior lecturer, is the author of “Florida Students Spend Spring Break Reporting from Hallowed Ground of Civil Rights History” published on poynter.com on June 12.

In honor of the 60^th anniversary of a pivotal year in the Civil Rights Movement, Lowe led an intercollegiate experience for 11 journalism students — seven from UFCJC and four from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU — to spend their spring break reporting from the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.

The students joined Lowe, Mira Lowe, dean of the FAMU School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, UFCJC Innovation News Center Senior TV News Manager Kalisha Whitman  and FAMU Visiting Professor Stanley Johnson for an eight-day, 2,800-mile trip through Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee to create a WUFT News website called “UFxFAMU1963: Reporting From the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.” WUFT-TV has also broadcast a related 25-minute documentary on the College’s affiliated PBS station.

The group traveled in a 15-person passenger van to visit about a dozen repositories of Black history, including the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, in Montgomery, Alabama; Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson; National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee; the King Center in Atlanta; and the Emmett Till Intrepid Center in Glendora, Mississippi.

“All in all, it’s rewarding that these 11 students now know and value Black history so much more,” Lowe wrote.

FAMU senior Brianna Luberisse said the experience compelled the group to share what they witnessed. “Don’t just capture the moment with your eyes,” she wrote. “Speak the words that you see and share the knowledge that you learned with everybody else in the world, and your peers, your friends and your family — so that this information is not lost.”

UFCJC Journalism senior Gabriela Rodriguez wrote: “The history I have learned along the U.S. Civil Rights Trail will stay with me for the rest of my life. I’m excited to share what I’ve learned with others and, hopefully, they, too, can learn from my experiences.”

Posted: June 23, 2023
Category: College News, Student News, The College in the News
Tagged as: Herbert Lowe, Kalisha Whitman, U.S. Civil Rights Trail, UFxFAMU1963