Day 9 - Candace

Day 9 was indeed a tiring yet very interesting day. We woke up around 7 o’clock dressed in our best business clothes, ready for the adventures Capitol Hill would bring. Our first adventure was to Senator Kit Bond’s office. But do to transportation difficulties we were only able to take a picture with him and take a short tour of his office. This was quite a letdown but we realized that this is indeed Capitol Hill and there is always something to do. After that run thanks to incredible CL alum that is currently interning art Claire McCaskil’s office, we were able to receive tickets to visit the senate and the House of Representatives. This experience was very interesting we learned about how some of our government works and what the process is.

After that wonderful experience we were able to meet with the well-known John Lewis. John Lewis was indeed was a Civil Rights activist in his truest form. He grew up in rural Alabama outside the small city of Troy. Growing in the rural and Deep South he grew up seeing “Blacks Only” and “Whites Only” signs. Urged by his parents to be quiet and stay out of trouble, he directly disobeyed and went for to protect his rights as a human being. He became the leader of SNCC (The Student Nonviolent Coordinator) at the age 25 because he was so involved. He said without this offer he wouldn’t have been able to do half of things he did. He wouldn’t have been able to meet Martin Luther King and lead the march across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. Congressman John Lewis was truly inspirational and taught all of that anything is very possible.

After meeting with Congressman Lewis we met with our state senator Claire McCaskill, who spoke to us about the problems in our very own communities. We then met with the very famous Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She opened with a wonderful case that touched the very heart-strings of which Cultural Leadership is here. She spoke about a Caucasian man and an African American woman who got married in Virginia but lived in DC, their marriage was not recognized in the DC community. They fought for the opportunity to be recognized as an actual couple and won. We had many questions for justice Ginsburg but she did her best to stay diplomatic with many answers. We ended the day with dinner at DC’s Union Station or either ChinaTown.