For Harvard students, self-discovery in South’s troubled past
Last spring, while other students were getting ready to relax and recharge during their College break, Seokmin Oh ’21 and Susie Clements ’19 were on a plane to Jackson, Miss., the first stop on their journey to trace the history of the Civil Rights Movement. With different reasons for making the journey, Oh and Clements both said the experience gave them a new perspective on their place in the world. Oh, whose family immigrated to Southern California from South Korea when he was 9 years old, described the South as “something that strikes in your heart and your soul.” Both he and Clements were deeply affected by the people they met — including Elizabeth Eckford, a member of the Little Rock Nine — and the places they saw, such as the seemingly endless plantations that can echo as remnants of segregation and slavery. “What really stuck with me was not so much the...