By Rachel Minske and Ellen Mattila  The re-election of President Barack Obama in 2012 brought celebration, but in many parts of the country it also brought controversy. The election results spurred a flare-up of online secession petitions, especially in the South. During the January 2013 Civil Rights Pilgrimage, Inside Eau Claire reporters Rachel Minske and Ellen [...]

By Michelle Adamczyk Sweat, spit and blood covered  the street while an angry mob circled roaring crude insults and threats. Roughly 1,200 troops lined the streets. Death threats are were hurled amid all the shouting and chaos. Disregarding all the madness, nine black students walked up the double staircase to enter the school, taking the [...]

By Sten Ivan As an international student unfamiliar with the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, it was a great opportunity for me to participate in the Civil Rights Pilgrimage with the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. The trip took me to the Deep South where I visited historic sites important to the movement. These photos [...]

In the 1940s, a Midwestern farmer named Dan West discovered a way to end hunger by providing families with livestock and training so they would not have to depend on others to feed them. The first shipment of heifers was transported to Puerto Rico from Pennsylvania in 1944 to malnourished families. These heifers supplied them with [...]

On April 4, 1968, a piercing gunshot rang out  in Memphis. Bystanders rushed to the Lorraine Motel to find the infamous civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. shot and dying on the second story balcony. King had been in Memphis  to lead a nonviolent march to support striking sanitation workers. Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles was on the balcony [...]

By Emily Gresbrink When University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire journalism students Amanda Tyler and Breann Schossow sat in pews interviewing a member of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Selma, Ala., a man came up behind them and sat down. He slowly began to talk about his experiences during the Civil Rights era and told them how in [...]

The famous Café du Monde is crowded with people savoring the trademark beignet and café au lait. Bourbon Street in the French Quarter is filled with bars and restaurants offering one of the most vibrant night scenes in New Orleans. Indeed, the city is recovering from the devastation of hurricane Katrina in 2005. But besides all of this, not [...]

By Carolyn Tiry Listen to Person’s formal presentation Listen to a question-and-answer session with Person Civil rights activist Charles Person used his experiences as a nonviolent protester to explain the importance of taking a stand to participants in the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire’s Civil Rights Pilgrimage Saturday. Person, one of the original “freedom riders” in [...]

Welcome! For the past four years, hundreds of University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire students have journeyed to the Deep South to experience a part of the civil rights movement. The Civil Rights Pilgrimage offers these students the opportunity to hear from people who endured the indignity of segregation and see the locations where the battle for [...]