SNCC Peek

And on this day of the runoff election to fill the final month in the seat of U.S. Senator John Lewis (street photography taken as the casket of Senator Lewis arrived at the Georgia State Capitol), prior to the big runoffs for two full-term U.S. Senate seats on January 5 here in Georgia, I am knee-deep (once again) in Atlanta’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). I ride there often, and my December Ride Spot self-guided bike tour will take place there. (Here are two nearby Traveling at the Speed of Bike tours: Castleberry Hill and MARTA Murals, if interested.)

Here’s a sneak peek (or rather, snick*?) at some recent happenings related to the HBCUs:

* SNCC, which is the abbreviation for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, of which Senator Lewis was the chairman from 1963-1966, is pronounced “snick”, for those who are not familiar with it

An Atlanta HBCU Homecoming Movement titled Cycle Revolution just concluded. I will try to find out details for you about how that went. I’m also curious if any of the HBCUs have applied for Bicycle Friendly University designation as two other schools in Atlanta have earned silver (Emory) and gold (Georgia Tech — one of only 24 at that level in the USA).
Peloton and Beyoncé just announced a partnership that gives free two-year digital memberships to students at 10 HBCUs, including Atlanta’s Morehouse and Spelman, in order to increase health equity. See their landing page about this, with a little history about HBCUs, here.
Danny Lyon, the first photographer (and one of my biggest inspirations as a street photographer) during the Civil Rights Movement for SNCC recently released his stunning documentary, titled SNCC, which I viewed yesterday for free on Vimeo (apparently Hulu and Netflix passed on it!) and strongly recommend. There is intimate and beautiful recent footage of John Lewis at the end, with whom Danny stayed friends for more than 55 years.
Morris Brown College, which had lost its accreditation twenty years ago, is officially back on its path. I’ll take you there via a brand new separated and protected cycletrack.

By the way, one of the two people in the runoff today for the seat of Senator Lewis is former-Atlanta-City-Councilor Kwanza Hall (who grew up next to Senator Lewis). He and I had a little communication recently after he liked this Twitter post of mine.