March 30, 2022

Registration is Now Open for Office of Human Rights Maryland Civil Rights Educational Freedom Experience

Registration is now open for the 2022 Maryland Civil Rights Educational Freedom Experience. This annual bus tour retraces the Freedom Trail, the Montgomery (Ala.) Bus Boycott, the Greensboro sit-ins, voting rights and other significant events of the Civil Rights movement. The tour is sponsored by the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights.

The nine-day tour will leave Rockville on Friday, April 29, and return on Saturday, May 7. The tour will travel to Greensboro, N.C.; Atlanta; Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Ala.; Memphis, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark. and Jackson, Miss. It will retrace the steps of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, the Little Rock Nine and many other civil-rights heroes.

Highlights on the tour will include visits to the Birth Home Museum of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,. the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, the Civil Rights Memorial Museum, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum, the Rosa Parks Museum, the Freedom Rides Museum, the new Legacy and Peace and Justice Museums, the National Voting Rights Museum, the famed Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge, the Little Rock Central High School, Medgar Evers’ home and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel.

Joan Mulholland, a freedom rider from the Civil Rights movement, will again be a special guest on the tour. Willie King, a former secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference under the direction and leadership of Dr. King Jr., also will join this year’s tour. Ms. Mulholland and Mr. King will share their stories and provide personal accounts at the stops along the journey. They also will have copies of books and other materials available for participants.

Payment is due by April 19. The all-inclusive tour packages cost $1,850 per person for a single room, $1,486 per person for a two-person room, and $1,361 for a three-person room. Family and student rates are available upon request. Event details, including the registration form, itinerary and general information is available here. Early registration is encouraged. Checks are preferred but credit cards are accepted as payment for registration.

The trip includes travel on a deluxe motor coach with Wi-Fi, hotel, multiple tour and museum admissions, some meals and snacks.

The tour is hosted by the Montgomery County Office of Human Rights, in collaboration with Montgomery County Public Libraries, the African American Employees Association, the Lincoln Park Historical Foundation and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. The tour is available to County and non-County residents.

For additional information, please contact Tawania McFadden at 240-242-5640 or tawania@tmccommunicatons.com or Jim Stowe at james.stowe@montgomerycountymd.gov.