For years, Jack Hanrahan dreamed of visiting historical sites of the civil rights movement throughout the South. In 2018, after retiring from a career as an ad exec and relocating to Charlottesville, Hanrahan and his wife made that dream a reality.
“I was quite moved by what occurred during this trip, and the experiences, the learning,” says Hanrahan.
Four years later, at friends’ urging, Hanrahan wrote Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History, a self-published travel guide inspired by the experience.
The challenges of creating an itinerary crisscrossing so many states, and including so many locations, inspired Hanrahan to streamline the process for others.
“I think it’s an important trip for people to take,” he says. “It’s not an easy trip because there’s lots of planning that’s necessary.”
The book is divided into dedicated chapters about a series of sites that form a loop. By car, the trip Hanrahan lays out takes about two weeks to complete.
“I make the point that you can enter this loop of about a dozen cities from anywhere in the United States,” says Hanrahan. “If you live in Saint Louis, your starting point is likely to be either Memphis or Little Rock, depending on how you want to end up. If your starting point is Houston, you’re probably going to begin your trip in Jackson, Mississippi. And then there’s essentially a not totally circular loop that you go around to these dozen or so cities that have a dedicated chapter in the book.”
In addition to tips about which days and times are best to visit particular locations, Hanrahan also includes the history around each site.
In Montgomery, Alabama, visitors can stop at the Legacy Museum, operated by the Equal Justice Initiative, and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the topic of lynching.
“Montgomery has so much history because Dr. King was there, the march on Selma ended there. Rosa Parks made her stand or sit-down on the bus that led to the ultimately successful Montgomery Bus Boycott,” says Hanrahan, who also cites the Freedom Rides Museum in Montgomery and the Southern Poverty Law Center’s tribute to the martyrs of the civil rights movement.
Traveling Freedom’s Road is Hanrahan’s first book, and it’s won praise from Publisher’s Weekly, which selected it as an Editor’s Pick and describes it as written with “intentionality, passion and precision.”
Participants in the civil rights movement have also responded positively to the book.
“This enhanced guide will, if you allow it to, excite your spirit of inquiry, lead to growth in your fund of information, and provide a clearer picture of how the continuing battle for civil rights for all can help us form that more perfect union alluded to in our national narrative,” writes Dr. Terrence Roberts, a Little Rock Nine member and author of Lessons from Little Rock.
Traveling Freedom’s Road is available for sale online and locally in Charlottesville at New Dominion Book Shop and Blue Whale Books. Hanrahan is sharing proceeds from the book with Legal Aid Justice Center, where he volunteers, and the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery.
Courteney Stuart is the host of “Charlottesville Right Now” on WINA. You can hear her interview with Jack Hanrahan at wina.com.
