Civil Rights Trip 2.0 (MLK jr. weekend)

I figured I should probably post about this trip before I leave on another--so, here I am literally writing this post in the Salt Lake City airport. Really going down to the wire on this one. You remember my civil rights trip? (Took place this time last year, a pilgrimage down south to the sites of the civil rights movement...refresher here) Well, since we don't get to go on the trip twice, a few friends and I planned to take our own civil rights trip during MLK jr. weekend. What better way to celebrate an incredible champion of justice, by actually celebrating the civil rights we enjoy in his honor!

The real MVP of this trip is Kira Nielsen 👏👏👏who made this trip possible by convincing her parents to let us take her car. I invited my friend Marissa on this trip, and beautiful friendships were born! Seriously, I knew she'd be such a good fit for this friend group, because she's one of the most woke white women at BYU.

We hit up the Watts Towers, visited the INCREDIBLE La Raza exhibit (photos of the Chicano Rights Movement) at the Autry Museum (of which there are no pictures because #copyright laws), but let me just say there were several tears shed at this moving exhibit along with, gasps of "I had no idea!" from my friends. We were also slightly angered—why don't we learn about the Chicano Rights Movement in school?!?!

^^Kira was literally all of us. It was 80 degrees and incredibly sunny, we were thriving. 

We also ventured down to Huntington Beach and watched the sunset. What is it about being on a beach that fills you with zen? Much needed.

We attended church at my old home singles ward. I was a little worried that I would no longer know anyone at the singles ward, but I was so pleasantly surprised. You know how much I love the worlds colliding sensation. This was one of those moments, sharing my home-based village of wonderful Polynesians with my BYU friends. (sidenote: I recently noticed just how many pictures I have in front of church signs...)

Also on the itinerary, a visit to the California African American Museum (CAAM) to see their Black Radical Women exhibit. 

We met up with Ryan from our civil rights trip who now lives in LA. We love this man!

A civil rights themed trip to LA would NOT be complete without a visit to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. Ask Ryan how he felt about the experience.

You just can't have a civil rights trip to SoCal without visiting Compton, and you can't have a visit to Compton without taking a picture in front of our larger than life Obama mural. 

We wrapped things up with an extremely quick trip to LACMA before we headed back to Utah. Honestly, this trip helped me realize that I don't want to just celebrate the "smaller" American holidays by just treating them like a freebie day off; I want to plan holidays with meaning. Thankful for these women who share my love and passion for civil rights and who think that taking a Civil Rights trip is cool!

❤️❤️❤️