Justice Journey 2025: Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2! It gets intense from here, so prepare yourself.

If you haven't read part 1, go do that. To recap, I (Jill), went on a bus trip from Chicago to Louisiana with SEIU at the end of June. In my previous post, I gave you some of what I wrote, some of my reflections from before we got to Memphis.

We visited the National Civil Rights museum, the Emmitt Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi and directly after we went to Basile to the ICE detention center. Some of us went to Basile and some of us went to Jena.

Those links up there, about Basile and Jena... they're mostly about the conditions of the GEO detention centers. It's not good. It's not even bad. It's inhumane.

These are some pics I got. The one with me holding a photo is from the church where MLK, Jr. visited in Memphis with the sanitation workers. That pic is in front of where the pic was taken, the day before he was assassinated. The next one is a pic of the outside the Lorraine Motel and then the balcony where it happened. Next are some pics from the inside of the National Museum of Civil Rights including the sit-ins, the bombed bus from the Freedom Rides, and statues of the sanitation workers on strike.

We traveled south and visited the places we visited in preparation for what we were about to do and see. Sumner and the surrounding areas were heavy. I taught my kids about the lynching of Emmitt Till. Nothing could have prepared me to be there in Sumner and to see the signs for Greenwood where he went to visit his family. I keep saying it was heavy but that's an understatement.

The courthouse and downtown of Sumner where the trial took place after Emmitt Till's murder.

The courthouse where the trial took place. Imagine Mamie Till walking up those stairs every day of that trial into the courtroom where Justice would not be served. Below is a photo of the courtroom from the trial.

At this point, we're going to stop to breathe. We had wellness people on the buses. And we needed them. So breathe in for 6 counts and use that diaphragm! Now hold for 4 counts and release your breath for 6 counts and really extend your stomach, get all that air out.

Do it again a couple times because now I'm taking you to Basile...

My bus went to Basile. A women's detention center. It's place were women are kept, some of whom are escaping violence. They have no access to basic human needs there. Women are having miscarriages with no healthcare provided to them. Food is expired and they are taken all the way to Louisiana to make sure they are as far away from their communities as possible. It's cruel. It's evil.

Small, small, man.

These detention centers are private. GEO sucks so bad and we're going to have to get into that in another blog. This guy here along with his goons was a real dick. They joked and laughed while we were out there. Him and I were staring each other down most of the time. Out of respect for SEIU I didn't do what I wanted to do. But we'll leave that to your imagination.

Marching up to the center.

We marched up, but what we noticed in the windows is going to stay with me forever. I need y'all to know the next videos are rough.

Yeah. You might need to breathe again and that's okay. Do that.

That's a lot so I'm going to hold off on my reflections for a Part 3.

For now, here's some inspo. David Huerta got out. Our work got him out. Our unions, our voice, our DEMANDS got him out. So we need to keep going. Even when it hurts. We breathe and keep going.

Watch this reel on Instagram.

Part 3 is next.