Faculty and Staff Experience Civil Rights Trip

At the end of June, 27 faculty and staff from three Baltimore-area partner schools embarked on the Civil Rights Trip — an experience normally reserved for students and a handful of chaperones.

Teachers, staff, and administrators from Park School, Baltimore City College, and City Neighbors Middle and High Schools boarded a 6 a.m. bus at Park School — with a surprise farewell from Park’s Head of School Dan Paradis — and began their journey to the Deep South, visiting sites and meeting people important to the Civil Rights Movement, just as our students do each winter and spring. (Our student Civil Rights Trips recently expanded to twice yearly due to increased interest.)

While the group was traveling, they collectively drafted a letter in response to a recent article published in the Baltimore Sun about the Harford County Public School Board denying a new Advanced Placement African American Studies course for the next school year. The School Board had expressed concerns that the course content was “divisive” and too political. 

The letter was published as an Op-Ed in the Sun on July 4. Although signed by Traci Wright, Upper School Principal and Co-founder of the Civil Rights Trip, the letter was a collective effort, with many trip members contributing.