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Kelyn Lanier shares his eye-opening experience on a civil rights trip to Alabama, from Birmingham’s heavy past to Selma’s iconic bridge.
Hear how meeting Janice Kelsey and visiting the Equal Justice Museum shifted his perspective and fueled his drive to act.
What happens when history stops being just words in a book and becomes something you can touch, feel, and walk through? In this powerful episode, business owner Kellen Lanier takes us through his transformative journey to Alabama's civil rights landmarks and how it fundamentally changed his understanding of America.
From an unexpected barbecue vending machine that brought strangers together to the soul-shaking experience of standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Kellen's vivid recollections bring us along on a journey that's both deeply personal and universally important. The encounter with Janice Kelsey, who participated in the Children's Marches as a teenager, proves particularly haunting. Her challenge – asking what we're doing with the vastly greater resources we have compared to what she had in the 1960s – echoes throughout the conversation.
Most moving is Kellen's description of the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Museum, where history becomes impossible to intellectualize away. "I think about that museum at least once or twice a week, every week, since then," he reveals. His raw, honest emotion watching others confront this history – "Good, I hope she cries the entire time and tells everybody about this" – reflects the necessary discomfort required for genuine understanding.
This isn't just a travelogue but a testament to how confronting our past changes how we live in the present. Since returning, Kellen has become more politically engaged, testifying at the state capitol and advocating for comprehensive Black history education. As he puts it, "Knowing that you have, comparatively, infinitely more resources than Janice and her brother did... but knowing that you're facing the same thing. I'm like, it's just their grandkids, but it's the same thing."
Join us for this moving conversation that will make you question what you know about American history and what responsibility we all bear in creating a more just future. Have you truly confronted our shared history?
This story connects history to today’s challenges, inspiring action in your own community.
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