Fourteen-year-old Angel Whitehead recently got her first look at a Ku Klux Klan member's robe and hood.
"She stood and looked for a while, and said, 'That's scary,'" Linda Qualls, Whitehead's grandmother, recounted. "I told her to think about how the people felt when they were approached by people in those hoods."
Angel Whitehead and her grandmother, Linda Qualls, visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute during a recent trip organized by Chattanooga's Department of Youth and Family Development.
Photo by Rachel Sauls-WrightQualls and Whitehead saw the KKK regalia and other artifacts during a trip to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute that was organized by Chattanooga's Department of Youth and Family Development. Along with the museum, seniors and youth visited the 16th Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park in an effort to learn about civil rights and share their experiences.
"I want her to realize and see what it took for her to be able to have the life she has now," Qualls said in regards to her granddaughter. "I think the younger generation doesn't realize what it took for us to get where we are now."
Even though Qualls lived through desegregation, she said she learned a lot, and so did her granddaughter. Whitehead was especially struck by the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, particularly because some of the victims were her own age.
"I told a friend about the girls who got bombed," she said. "She'd never heard about it. I felt proud of myself for telling her, because she would've never known."
For Whitehead, the trip was an opportunity to see her grandmother's life in a new light, and for Qualls, it brought back to life events from her childhood.
"I would like to go again," Qualls said. "I would encourage anyone to go."