by Lena Knieriemen, student at the Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz and a former intern at the Atlantische Akademie.
While the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz offers a variety of opportunities to travel to the United States with different exchange programs, I had the immense luck to be able to take part in the 2023 American South Summer School. If you are anything like me, you might wonder now, why visit the Southern states? Politically, the current state of abortion access and lax gun laws as well as the rather conservative stance on LGBTQ+ topics might be worrisome. Historically, the intense racism and racist violence is the first thing that comes to mind. But I would argue that there is more to the South, and the educational benefit of actually being at historic sites is unparalleled. And do not forget about the music, food, nature, and people that make the South what it is, or you ignore integral parts of its culture.
ARKANSAS
Arkansas was the starting point of the trip, more specifically a cute little town called Searcy, where Harding College is located, which was so nice as to host us for the first week. This time was filled with classes surrounding Southern literature. Some authors and the history they referenced I knew, some others were entirely new to me.
Searcy will also teach you the meaning of Southern Hospitality – or are they Southern Tricksters – meaning they only act as if they are friendly and hospitable? That is for you to find out (Spoiler: the people there really are some of the nicest people you will ever meet – sure there are exceptions, but the majority were really welcoming and open). I would strongly advise you that when you are presented with the opportunity, go to Daisy’s Lunchbox – a cute restaurant with typical Southern food and a free cinnamon roll with every dish!
Other places in Arkansas that we visited include Heber Springs, where we spent a fun day at the lake and included a quick detour to the Greers Ferry Dam, the place of John F. Kennedy’s last major public appearance before his assassination. There you can marvel at the (in my opinion) ugliest JFK statue ever made. You should totally have a look at it.
In the capital, Little Rock, the highs and lows of museums went hand in hand. The trip to Little Rock Central High School, where the Little Rock Nine went to school, was thoroughly educational, thanks to a great guide who, apart from recounting the events in such a captivating manner, also delivered personal insights he gained from frequent phone calls with the actual Little Rock Nine, for example Elizabeth Eckford. Afterwards, the William J. Clinton Presidential Center was not that captivating as far as museums go – mainly because the information was pretty one-sided (as is to be expected with a museum funded by Bill Clinton himself), but at the time they had a temporary dinosaur exhibit which was the highlight for me.
And lastly for this first state, the nature is breathtakingly beautiful – from the bluffs to the caverns and woods, it left me in awe.
TENNESSEE
If you think about Memphis, two people should come to mind: Martin Luther King and Elvis Presley. While Memphis itself is not that pretty of a city, its rich history makes up for it: it is a strange feeling to visit the Lorraine Motel, to stand in front of the balcony on which MLK was murdered, but it was a powerful museum to walk through. A happier history is shown in the Sun Studios, where Elvis was discovered and you can enter the real recording room, where to this day artists still record their albums.
The penultimate stop on our trip, after visiting Alabama, was Nashville, and I loved everything about this city: the Broadway, be it at day or night, the food, the music, all the memorabilia of singers at the Hardrock Café (including a mic and guitar by one of my all-time-favorite bands, Paramore), the restaurants we went to, and so much more. Truly one of the cities I liked most during the trip.
MISSISSIPPI
Inarguably, Mississippi is one of the darkest places concerning Civil Rights. But when it comes to education on the matter, it is one of the brightest spots. Especially because we met the investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Mitchell played a role in solving four cold cases from the Civil Rights era. He told us about interviewing Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan and Phineas Priesthood, who murdered Civil Rights Activist Medgar Evers in 1963; he was acquitted twice before an all-white jury before the case was reopened in the 1990s. Mitchell went into great detail by telling us what vile and unbelievably hateful things Byron De La Beckwith said in an interview for the Clarion Ledger, the newspaper Mitchell worked for at the time. He also said how the experience left him with a “dirty” feeling, as in “wanting to take a shower and wash the experience off”, as he was truly sickened at the disgusting beliefs De La Beckwith held, but it also encouraged him to further investigate the case to push for it to be reopened. And it worked: Byron De La Beckwith was sentenced to life in prison in 1994. I would highly recommend Mitchell’s book, Race Against Time, for more details. The museum is also amazingly structured, with informative displays (some of which even contain trigger warnings for the extreme violence that is depicted), highly educated staff and Civil Rights activists frequently visiting to share their story. One of them is Hezekiah Watkins, the youngest Freedom Rider, who tells the story of how he was incarcerated in Parchman Prison and put on death row, for falsely being identified as a Freedom Rider (the experience made him join the cause, at the time he was first arrested, he was just a boy). Apart from that, visiting Rowan Oak, a true Southern style mansion in which William Faulkner lived out his days and the University of Mississippi, better known as Ole Miss, where the first African American enrolled in the South, were highlights. At Ole Miss, we also received an exclusive tour of their college baseball, football, and basketball court, which all have dimensions that are simply mind-blowing to Europeans– because its “just” university sports, however there is no such thing as “just” university sports in the US.
A personal highlight was the Target located at a walkable distance from our hotel, which was quite literally consumer heaven.
LOUISIANA
New Orleans was the first break we could take from an otherwise densely educational and informative trip. The mission here was: do what you want but be safe. With a hotel situated in the middle of the French Quarter, a fun time was inevitable. While the French Quarter and especially the two main streets, Bourbon Street and Royal Street, sometimes left me feeling uncomfortable, as there were just so many people, the time spent in the city was one of a kind. Music at every corner, people having a good time everywhere and tasty food places and bars completed the experience. Apart from that, the streetcars serving as public transportation as well as the steamboats running along the Mississippi River where a sight to be seen. For me personally, my visit to the National World War II Museum was something like “a dream come true”, since I had been wishing to go there from the moment I first became interested in learning about World War II from the American perspective thanks to Band of Brothers and The Pacific. Sadly, I only made it through two of the six halls filled with exhibits – which simply means I have to go back there one day. And furthermore, New Orleans has a special treat for anyone who watched American Horror Story: Coven: You can visit Ms. Robichaux Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies (well, you can stand outside it and take a picture, it is a normal home where actual people live, not just a set piece).
ALABAMA
Montgomery – home of the first museum that brought me to the verge of tears. The Legacy Museum, situated in an old warehouse that was once used for slave trade, gives a brutally graphic insight into the lived reality of African Americans, always sticking to its motto: “From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration”. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice belongs to the museum, and pays tribute to every Black person lynched in the US – it is stele after stele engraved with the names, dates of birth and death and “crimes” of brutally lynched people. That really left an impression on me.
Montgomery is also the place where the Bus Boycott started when Rosa Parks did not want to give up her seat to a white man, and right next to this historical bus stop you can find the Rosa Parks Museum.
Other important sites in the state include Selma, where the Edmund Pettus Bridge is located (Pettus was a KKK member by the way), the starting point of what would become one of the most important Civil Rights moments, the march from Selma to Montgomery. Further, there are important cities like Tuskegee (known through the Tuskegee Airmen, Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Booker T. Washington) and Birmingham (where the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church, which killed four little girls, took place).
WASHINGTON D.C.
The last stop already. The last museum on the trip was the National Museum of African American History & Culture, which basically summed up the rather state specific museums and history up until this point. Further it included a small section dedicated to the memory of Emmett Till, truly one of the more sickening parts of Civil Rights history and the one lynching that could be seen as the trigger for starting the movement.
Afterwards, we went to the Washington Monument, the Capitol, the Supreme Court and lastly, the White House – basically all the “must-see” tourist attractions. Afterwards we had dinner at the Founding Farmers (a restaurant incorporating Founders Chic, in other words, the admiration and glorification of the Founding Fathers, with amazingly tasty food!). The day ended at the Lincoln Memorial. Here, we watched the sunrise – for more on tv shows, the walk there took us through a park which fans of JAG, (the show that spawned all of the NCIS shows) should recognize for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
In D.C., a few friends and I went to Barnes and Nobles, and let me tell you, the bookshop lives up to all expectations social media might have given you. It also comes with a build-in Starbucks, if you are into that.
A personal lowlight of the trip was the Washington Nationals versus Oakland Athletics baseball game. It was simply absolutely boring – in part due to the Nationals being a bad team, in part because of not understanding anything about the sport. But it was still worth it to go there, to witness the heyday of American sports.
After the end of the official trip, two friends and I went to Arlington National Cemetery – the cemetery where national heroes are buried, so to speak. For example, the Eternal Flame and the graves of JFK and his wife, Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and, for fans of The Pacific and Band of Brothers, the grave of John Basilone and the Battle of the Bulge Memorial.
Some last tips from me :
- Do not get your hopes up about coffee – while the staff at Harding were so kind as to brew it extra strong for us, it was still not like the one we were used to from Germany, and it was simply terrible at other hotels.
- Talk to locals and practice your English! Most staff in the shops we went to were happy to talk to us, and all of them forgave little errors in pronunciation or syntax or grammar or whatever. Use this chance!
- Download the Uber app. Speaking from personal experience, it is no fun to be stranded in Washington D.C. in the dark with no more subways running and no idea on how to get back to the hotel.
- Maybe you think that Americans overdo it with the A/C, but once you feel the humid heat of the South, you will thank God for blessing the world with air conditioning.
- While you might think that I spoilt the entire trip just now, it is one thing to read my yapping about it, and another to actually see and experience everything I just wrote about.
The trip was truly unforgettable for me and I am eternally glad I went. I would also argue that I am now a connoisseur of American fast food – but please do not ask me to rank the restaurants! I learned so much in those three weeks as I had never before, and I know I would have deeply regretted not take this one of a kind chance to visit the United States. Matter of fact, before going on this trip, I was not even sure I ever wanted to fly over and go to the States, and now I would gladly go again.
Lena Knieriemen ist Studentin JGU Mainz. Der Bericht ist ein persönlicher Erfahrungsbericht über ihren Auslandsaufenthalt.