Black Action Society (BAS) focuses on educating people on black history and black influences, which is why they will be taking a group of students on a cultural immersion trip to Baltimore, Maryland from February 23 to 24.
Kennedy Moore, junior resort recreation and hospitality management major and president of BAS, will be going on the trip, and also attended their trip to New York City last year.
“The trip is a cultural immersion trip,” Moore said, “So the goal of the trip is to take students to different places around the country and educate them on the black influences we have on the different parts of the country.”
The club takes a trip of about 50 students every year, having gone to New York City last year and Washington, D.C. the year before that.
The trip only costs students who attend $50 for hotel, transportation, a group meal and the tour. BAS funds their trip from the budget Student Government Association (SGA) provides them, as well as the Fredrick Douglass Institute. The Fredrick Douglass Institutes supports Pennsylvania state schools and their underrepresented students.
“Our homecoming dance in October is our big fundraiser that we use to put money towards this trip,” Moore said.
“We are going to be doing a group dinner and then we will be going on a guided tour Saturday afternoon and we will be covering a lot of information about the underground railroad and we will also be visiting a wax museum that is dedicated to blacks in history,” Moore said.
The guided tour will allow students to see the black influences in Baltimore by stopping at the Orchard Street Church, which was built by Truman Pratt, a former slave. The church closed in 1970 but was believed to be part of the underground railroad and a center for African Americans. They will also stop at The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, which highlights black figures not only in Baltimore, but around the world.
The tour will also see the Hampton Historic Site, Civil War Museum and Sharp Street Church to open students’ eyes to the importance of black history everywhere they go.
The trip is open to the whole student body, and sign-ups are during common hours until February 8.
BAS also provides other activities for the student body such as open mic nights, general body meetings, discussions about current events and the media, and their soul food tasting event.
“[Going on the trip] is a great learning opportunity and someone might learn something that they never knew before, and black history is something that’s taught everywhere but we don’t learn about everything,” Moore said, “But I feel like this tour, and especially the area that we will be in, we will probably learn and get to see more of what black history has to offer.”
