Discover and celebrate your own civil rights heroes on your doorstep

Journey to Justice (JtoJ) galvanises people to take action for social justice through learning about human rights movements, and the arts created, by people who believe in the power of ‘ordinary people’ to change the world.

JtoJ’s main project is a touring exhibition focused on the US civil rights movement and its music, which tells the extraordinary story of some of the less well-known women, men and children involved.
It highlights some of the many struggles for freedom in the UK and illustrates how the US civil rights movement has affected people in the UK, and worldwide and helped inspire subsequent women’s, peace, and gay liberation movements.

As the exhibition travels, it links with local communities, incorporating lessons from UK campaigns for freedom, equality and human rights. Using arts and intergenerational activities, it shows how change for social justice can happen led by ‘people like us’.

In October 2019 the exhibition visited Leicester and took over the Attenborough Arts Centre for a month.

Professor George Lewis, an academic at University of Leicester, was a key player in getting JtoJ’s exhibition to Leicester and getting as many young people in Leicester and Leicestershire to see that civil rights movements haven’t stopped with the suffragettes, Martin Luther King or the Stonewall Riots. They continue today with movements such as Black Lives Matter and School Climate Strikes.

As part of JtoJ’s exhibition in Leicester the Justice Plaques project was born as a response to the lack of diversity in Leicester city’s ‘blue plaques’ and lack of connection with the people being commemorated.

Originally delivered on a History taster day, Justice Plaques is now a project designed to be led and delivered in schools by teachers and students, giving learners an opportunity to discover facts about Leicester’s civil rights movements and empowering students to discover their own civil rights heroes on their doorstep.

If you’re interested in running a Justice Plaques project in your school as part of your History or PSHE/Citizenship lesson plans then please contact reach@le.ac.uk with the subject “Justice Plaques”

After that session, I am thinking about University. I wasn’t before. I’m more confident now.
Year 10 Opportunity Participant