Sojourn to the Past is a non-profit organization that provides for 11th and 12th grade students a unique, rigorous and transformative social justice-civil rights education program which is endorsed by national and state legislators, law and history scholars, premier social justice leaders and organizations as well as luminaries in the arts, entertainment and professional sports.

	Sojourners at the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, GA

Sojourn to the Past takes students out of the classroom and across the country for a ten-day life-changing journey along the path of the Civil Rights Movement in the South, bringing history to life by engaging them with historical sites and with prominent veterans of the Movement, many of whom, like the students, were young when they took up the humanitarian cause for civil rights. The program is significant, not only for its historic value, but importantly for the burgeoning recognition of responsibility for the students to put the lessons they learn from the Movement into practice in their schools and communities toward creating a more civil society that is free of discrimination, violence, hatred, bigotry, and inequity – an end to silent voices; an end to silent witnesses. Sojourners are challenged to reach within themselves to define the values that drive them and to defend the principles of equality and justice – a deep and personal inquiry that rarely happens in a classroom. Importantly, the curriculum is aligned with California State Standards in History education.

The program was designed and developed in the San Francisco Bay Area by Jeff Steinberg, a history teacher who has since become Sojourn’s Executive Director. United States Senator Barbara Boxer, in conveying upon Mr. Steinberg her Excellence in Education Award, wrote, “Programs like Sojourn to the Past ensure America’s future as a land of liberty and justice for all.” Congressman John Lewis, a veteran leader of the Civil Rights Movement who meets with the students on the sojourns, has credited Mr. Steinberg with “helping to change our country”. Sojourn has also been formally recognized by the California State Legislature.

In striving to bring our nation together, President Obama has emphasized the importance of empathy and understanding in identifying with people’s hopes and struggles. Sojourn to the Past manifests both in mission and in action, the philosophy that is at the core of the President’s platform for our country.