A journey of reflection

The Mission Network development team visited the National Monument to Freedom in Montgomery

The Mission Network development team visited the National Monument to Freedom in Montgomery

Mission Network’s development team set out on a U.S. Civil Rights Just Peace Pilgrimage. While there, they visited powerful memorials and engaged with people who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. The following is a selection of pictures taken during their pilgrimage.


Senior Executive of Advancement Wil LaVeist talks with Jake Williams of
Mongomery Tours, who showed staff historic sites in Selma and shared his personal experience in the second historic Selma March on March 9, 1965, that he participated in as a young boy. Photo: Wil LaVeist.

Elizabeth Eby, Ministry Support Team Coordinator, at the
National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to Black victims of white lynch mobs. She’s reading some of the “reasons” given for particular lynchings, such as “looked at a white woman." Photo: Caitlin Lanctot.

Jason Ault, Development Representative, at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The hanging steel columns list various counties and names of Black men and women who were lynched. Photo: Caitlin Lanctot.


Eby and Justin Odom, Development Representative, with sculptures at the entrance to the National Memorial for Justice and Peace. Photo: Caitlin Lanctot.


Anton Flores of
Casa Alterna, (left) talks with Mission Network staff about the temporary home asylum seekers are able to live in as they navigate the immigration process. Photo: Wil LaVeist.


While touring downtown Atlanta, the pilgrimage group saw
#StopCopCity demonstrators rally outside of city hall to protest the city’s plans to put a police training center in Weelaunee Forest, a watershed on historic Muscogee tribe land, now surrounded by by primarily Black neighborhoods. Photo: Wil LaVeist.


At the end of a day, Mission Network staff reflect on their feelings and reactions to injustices they learned about and witnessed earlier in the day. Photo: Wil LaVeist.