From Joe Fronczak:

I was thinking about our sing-along on the bus yesterday. It was an extraordinary experience. The songs were ones that hit you right in your marrow. I hear so much honesty, and truth, in those songs. … It was exciting to hear people's voices singing these songs yesterday. You could hear in the texture of the sound that we weren't singing these songs as camp songs but as freedom songs. Hearing these songs come from voices informed with the context of these songs was powerful!

From Charles Hughes:

On the bus somewhere between Chicago and Nashville, we all got a little taste of the soul-shaking power of music. Ragged and highly unrehearsed though they were, those renditions of "I'll Fly Away," "Angel from Montgomery," "This Land is Your Land," and "Oh, Freedom" occasionally reached heights of gospel power, with verses called out by members of the choir and a sensibility that valued excitement over accuracy, feeling over precision.

From Megan Vail, in Birmingham:

We ate lunch at LaVase Restaurant. I've decided that I'll eat Southern soul food any time over the same old, not-exciting Northern mush … I've officially decided that the banana pudding that I ate for dessert is heaven, and I need to learn the recipe.

From Gwen Drury, on the road in Alabama:

We can't beat kudzu - how can we beat racism?

From Joshua Moise, on dinner at the Body of Christ Deliverance Ministry, Birmingham:

Tonight we sat and lifted our spirits with food, song, and spiritual healing. We went in the belly of the church to gorge on BBQ ribs, baked chicken, roast beef, honey-baked ham, collard greens, green beans, tossed salad, rice consommé, carrot-raisin salad, black-eyed peas, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, with a dessert of home-made pound cake [and] pecan pie washed down with iced tea.

From Marjorie Cook, on dinner at the Body of Christ Deliverance Ministry, Birmingham:

Instead of a meal, it was like taking the sacrament from the hand of someone who is loving and forgiving.

From Mia Reddy, in New Orleans:

Lots of fried food. Fried oysters, fried catfish, hush puppies, gumbo, french fries, fried shrimp, and don't forget stuffed crab and fried soft-shell crab. And that was just my plate … But on the heavier side of things, we saw a white man on the street sleeping in a doorway. Michelle gave him crackers, and Yoseph gave him a cigarette. Makes you remember it's not just a color issue -- it's a class issue.

From Mia Reddy:

[I] always listened to music to fit my mood but never listened to the words — picked songs because of the way the music made me feel … it isn't really about that completely, is it?