Bus tour to take students to historic civil rights sites

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Three dozen Detroit-area students are visiting historic civil rights sites in Atlanta, Memphis, Tennessee, and Louisville, Kentucky.

The students were expected to leave Southfield Friday by bus for the weekend “Freedom Ride” tour.

Scheduled stops include the old Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot in 1968. The motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

The students also will visit black colleges and universities and the Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta.

They are scheduled to return Tuesday.

Contributions from businesses, organizations, associations and individuals helped fund the tour, which is sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Task Force . The non-profit celebrates the life and works of the late civil rights leader.