Freedom Ride 2025

This week, 17 members of our ESUMC family joined the St. Francis Springs Prayer Center for its first-ever Freedom Ride. Inspired by the historic Freedom Rides of the Civil Rights Movement, this powerful pilgrimage led by Dr. Dumas Harshaw took us to sacred sites of the struggle for justice in Atlanta and Montgomery.

From the King Center to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, from Rosa Parks’ legacy to the sobering truths of the Legacy Museum, we listened, learned, lamented, prayed, and hoped.

The journey ended back at St. Francis Springs with deep reflection, music, and prayer. While we thank God for experiences to inspire our desire to seek justice, we also lament the harm caused to God's children by systems of injustice.

May our faith continue to move us toward a deeper call to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, features over 800 weathering steel monuments suspended overhead, each representing a county where documented lynchings occurred and bearing the names of over 4,400 victims killed by racial terror. This powerful memorial, created by the Equal Justice Initiative, invites visitors to walk beneath these monuments in contemplation and remembrance, confronting our nation's history of racial violence while honoring the memory of those whose lives were lost.