JCP Service Corps: Blacks, Jews & the American South

The Service Corps Experience

Travel the American South with other Jewish teens:

• Memphis, Tennessee
• Cleveland, Mound Bayou, Shaw, Indianola, Greenville and Clarksdale, Mississippi.
  • While in Mississippi, participants will be based in Jackson Mississippi at Tougaloo College, an historic Black college that was home to Freedom Riders and Civil Rights workers throughout the 1960s.
• Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham, Alabama

Sample Itinerary for the Mississippi-based portion of the trip:

• Morning: Visit the Emmett Till Interactive Museum
• Afternoon: Visit a Jewish community in the area that is over 100 years old; Meet local activists and educators who work on ensuring voting rights for all.
• Evening: Enjoy a night of Blues music

Sample Itinerary for the Alabama-based portion of the trip:

• Morning: Visit the Civil Rights Institute and the 16th Street Baptist Church; cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
• Afternoon: sit on the bus where Rosa Parks began her Montgomery Bus Boycott and meet with leaders at the Equal Justice Initiative; visit the Lynching Memorial in Montgomery
• Evening: visit Tuskegee and Auburn, home to Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver and learn about the historical alliance between the Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald and Booker Washington.

• Local church and synagogue clean-up and maintenance in small towns throughout the Mississippi Delta
• Cemetery maintenance and revitalization work
• Tutoring and volunteer work in the Jackson Public Schools and the Jackson Hinds Public Library.

Learn from Experts and Local Community Leaders on important topics including:

• Exploring Southern Jewish Identity
• Southern Jews and Civil Rights
• Legacy of Jewish Volunteers in Mississippi
• Contemporary Inequity in Mississippi
• Public History and Collective Memory
• Reflection and Commitment to Building a Better World