A Healing Justice Retreat
Long Journey Home Walking Together:
History, Memory, and Hope in Our Shared Humanity
A Healing History Retreat
In Partnership with the Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice
March 4–8, 2027 | Montgomery and Selma, Alabama
An invitation to walk together
Long Journey Home invites us to bear witness to history, deepen understanding, strengthen relationships, and explore what it means to build a future rooted in our shared humanity. This information introduces the journey, its itinerary, and tuition. The attached registration form invites you to share a little about yourself and what brings you to this circle.
Retreat Itinerary
March 4–8, 2027 | Montgomery and Selma, Alabama
Thursday March 4
- Arrival — Marriott Residence Inn Hotel, Montgomery
- 5:00 PM — Welcome Circle
- 6:00 PM — Dinner
- 7:15 PM — Songs of Freedom with Wanda Battle and keyboardist
Friday March 5
- 7:00 AM — Breakfast
- 8:00 AM — Depart hotel
- 9:00 AM — Selma Tour with Foot Soldiers Park Foundation
- Following tour — Return to Montgomery
- 2:00–4:00 PM — Montgomery Historical Tour with Wanda Battle
- Following tour — Self-care break
- 6:00 PM — Dinner
- 7:00–8:30 PM — Evening Reflection Circle
Saturday March 6
- 7:30 AM — Breakfast
- 8:45 AM — Departure for Equal Justice Initiative sites: Freedom Monument Sculpture Park; Legacy Museum; National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- 5:00 PM — Return to hotel and self-care break
- 6:00 PM — Dinner
- 7:00–8:30 PM — Evening Reflection Circle
Sunday March 7
- Morning — Breakfast
- 9:00 AM — Montgomery Square
- 10:15 AM — Depart for Selma
- 12:00–3:00 PM — Selma Jubilee events and bridge crossing
- Following events — Return to Montgomery and self-care break
- 6:00 PM — Dinner
- 7:00–8:30 PM — Evening Reflection Circle
Monday March 8
- 7:30 AM — Breakfast
- 9:00 AM — Closing Circle
- 12:00 PM — Departures
Tuition and what is included
$1,998 per person | Double occupancy
• Four nights of lodging
• Meals during the retreat
• Transportation throughout the retreat
• Museum and memorial admissions
• Local historian and guide fees
• Professional facilitation using Circle of Trust®, Art of Hosting, and Worldview Intelligence practices
• Retreat journal and materials
• Pre-retreat Zoom gathering and post-retreat integration Zoom gathering
Personal round-trip travel to and from Montgomery is not included. Participants arrange their own transportation to Montgomery. Please consider travel insurance covering retreat tuition and airfare; see the cancellation policy in the payment instructions.
Why we journey
History lives not only in books and museums, but in landscapes, communities, memories, and relationships.
Together we will explore places where people suffered, resisted, persevered, and dreamed of freedom. We will learn from local historians and community leaders and engage the intertwined histories of African Americans and Jews—communities whose stories reveal both profound pain and remarkable resilience.
We will walk through places that challenge us to remember honestly, reflect deeply, and imagine more courageously. Practices drawn from Circle of Trust®, Art of Hosting, and Worldview Intelligence will support thoughtful dialogue, personal reflection, and meaningful relationship-building.
This is a pilgrimage of memory, relationship, and hope. Each person joins us as a journey partner, bringing their own lived experience, questions, and willingness to listen.
As we gather during the Selma Jubilee, visit sites of conscience and remembrance, and walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge together, we honor those whose courage and sacrifices continue to shape our nation.
In honor of those who walked before us
This retreat is inspired by lives and legacies that continue to illuminate our path.
Julius Lester. Scholar, civil rights activist, musician, photographer, and storyteller, Lester taught us that history and memory are sacred responsibilities. The title Long Journey Home honors his enduring work and his belief that understanding one another begins with listening deeply to our shared human story.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel reminded us that faith must be lived through action and that our moral responsibility is to stand beside one another in the struggle for justice and human dignity.
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. King challenged us to imagine and build the Beloved Community, where justice, compassion, and human dignity are extended to all people.
Anne Braden. Braden demonstrated the courage required to build authentic relationships across lines of race, religion, and identity and to challenge injustice wherever it is found.
Bryan Stevenson. Stevenson calls our nation to a deeper reckoning with history and a broader understanding of mercy, truth, and human dignity.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Sacks taught that our differences need not divide us and that human flourishing depends upon honoring the dignity of one another.
Dedicated to the memory of Miss Joanne Bland
Beloved teacher, civil rights foot soldier, truth-teller, and keeper of history, Miss Joanne Bland of Selma helped thousands understand that history is a living inheritance. Her life and work call us toward responsibility, understanding, and courage.
Voices that guide this journey
“The purpose of history is to teach us compassion.”
— Julius Lester
“If you don’t know where you’ve been, you don’t know where you’re going.”
— Joanne Bland
“The wall between us is not as thick as we think.”
— Anne Braden
“When I marched in Selma, my legs were praying.”
— Abraham Joshua Heschel
“We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
— Bryan Stevenson
“The dignity of difference is that we are enlarged, not threatened, by the diversity of humankind.”
— Jonathan Sacks
Payment instructions
Travel insurance and cancellation
Create Safe Space Inc is a small nonprofit organization. We ask every journey partner to consider travel insurance that covers retreat tuition and airfare if you need to cancel. Please review the policy carefully to understand which cancellation circumstances and expenses are covered.
If you cancel within five weeks of the retreat’s start date, we cannot refund your tuition unless we are able to fill your vacated space.
Pay by check
Make your check payable to Create Safe Space Inc and mail it with your completed registration form to:
Create Safe Space Inc
107 Majestic Oaks Drive
Savannah, Georgia 31406
One journey partner: $1,998.00
Two journey partners: $3,996.00
Please include the names of all journey partners covered by your check.
Pay by charge card through PayPal
Charge-card payment is available through the Create Safe Space Inc PayPal account. The proposed additional service fee is $58.25 per person, added to tuition.
One journey partner: $1,998.00 tuition + $58.25 service fee = $2,056.25
Two journey partners: $3,996.00 tuition + $116.50 service fee = $4,112.50
Organizer review before distribution: PayPal’s U.S. user agreement prohibits a fee specifically for accepting PayPal. Resolve the pricing approach with PayPal before publishing this payment option. The requested $58.25 has been retained here; 2.9% of $1,998 plus $0.30 is $58.24, and actual account rates must be confirmed.
