Study Abroad at Morehouse
In December 2023 and January 2024, Morehouse students traveled with Morehouse faculty/staff-led programs to two destinations. The Bonner Program’s annual service-learning experience in the Dominican Republic and Morehouse in Ireland: Transatlantic Perspectives of Civil Rights and Social Justice-oriented Leadership allowed students to experience new cultural and social environments and serve. Drs. Kipton Jensen and Justin McClinton led the Morehouse in Ireland Program and shared some of the lessons learned from that experience.
Morehouse in Ireland: Transatlantic Perspectives of Civil Rights and Social Justice Leadership
A cohort of twelve men from Morehouse traveled to Ireland during the J-mester to study the imperfect parallels between the civil rights movement in the US and Ireland. Frederick Douglass paved the way in 1845. The study abroad experience was led by Leadership Studies professors, Drs. Kipton Jensen and Justin McClinton. Although “We Shall Overcome” was the anthem of the civil rights movement in the US and also Ireland, what was overcome was both similar and different. 'Bloody Sunday' in Birmingham on March 7th, 1965, was both analogous and disanalogous to what came to be known as 'Bloody Sunday' in Derry on January 30th, 1972. Ireland recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. It wasn’t all study, of course: students surfed on the shores of Bundoran, explored the magical woodlands of Donegal, enjoyed the nightlife in Dublin, surmounted the hills of Tara, explored the Cavan Burran, visited the Ballyshannon Famine Workhouse, peered over the Sligabh Liag Cliffs, took a ferry to Arranmore Island, where only Gaelic is spoken, and discussed nonviolent protest with survivors of the Bloody Sunday at the Derry Bogside Civil Rights Museum.
