Meet Nedra, our passionate Civil Bikes tour guide
Nedra is just a regular woman who lives in Atlanta Georgia and she started a business called Civil Bikes. Nedra leads bike tours around the city of Atlanta to historical landmarks regarding to the Civil Rights movement. While we were in the south, I got to ask Nedra some questions about herself, her business, and civil rights.
MILES: How has the civil rights movement impacted your life?
NEDRA: Just thinking about the lives of my grandparents and my parents... I definitely have a lot more freedom. I move around, I live in different places by myself, I have I have a lot of autonomy; my parents integrated schools when they were children, so like, high-school age, so that meant that there were spaces in everyday life that were closed off to them in part of their life. My mom remembers being told not to drink from a white water fountain and she almost got in trouble. So, just the idea that there’s a white space and black space. Even though it is still part of my consciousness, because our world still see spaces in color, you know, space is designated by race. But [...] there's not legal reaction, there’s no one who is going to come after me and maybe create violence or physical harm for me. So I don’t feel endangered; for the most part, I feel like I have a lot of freedom in my life to do what I think is important and the things I want to d…
MILES: Why did you chose to start your business?
NEDRA: Kind of like the conversation we were having inside of Apex Museum. I started because I feel like we need to talk and understand each other’s history, each other’s experiences through having that close contact that we cannot believe how media depicts folks, but that we see that there is humanity, there is dignity, there’s vitality, there’s like all this positive-ness about people who look like me, who are black. You know? Also, I feel like Atlanta has its long history, and if in Atlanta we can figure out how to address race, address class, address gender, sexual identity, we can also change the world in a positive direction. And so I really we are just a small part in a larger story. But we want to create a ripple and impact as well.
In conclusion Nedra started her business to keep the awareness of black rights and to understand the history of each others ancestors and to try to understand everyone's experiences. Finally, she started her business in order to play a small role on the path to everyone being equal, and no one being judged on their race, religion, gender, sexual identity, or by their class, “but by the content of their character” (King 1963).
MILES: How has the civil rights movement impacted your life?
NEDRA: Just thinking about the lives of my grandparents and my parents... I definitely have a lot more freedom. I move around, I live in different places by myself, I have I have a lot of autonomy; my parents integrated schools when they were children, so like, high-school age, so that meant that there were spaces in everyday life that were closed off to them in part of their life. My mom remembers being told not to drink from a white water fountain and she almost got in trouble. So, just the idea that there’s a white space and black space. Even though it is still part of my consciousness, because our world still see spaces in color, you know, space is designated by race. But [...] there's not legal reaction, there’s no one who is going to come after me and maybe create violence or physical harm for me. So I don’t feel endangered; for the most part, I feel like I have a lot of freedom in my life to do what I think is important and the things I want to d…
MILES: Why did you chose to start your business?
NEDRA: Kind of like the conversation we were having inside of Apex Museum. I started because I feel like we need to talk and understand each other’s history, each other’s experiences through having that close contact that we cannot believe how media depicts folks, but that we see that there is humanity, there is dignity, there’s vitality, there’s like all this positive-ness about people who look like me, who are black. You know? Also, I feel like Atlanta has its long history, and if in Atlanta we can figure out how to address race, address class, address gender, sexual identity, we can also change the world in a positive direction. And so I really we are just a small part in a larger story. But we want to create a ripple and impact as well.
In conclusion Nedra started her business to keep the awareness of black rights and to understand the history of each others ancestors and to try to understand everyone's experiences. Finally, she started her business in order to play a small role on the path to everyone being equal, and no one being judged on their race, religion, gender, sexual identity, or by their class, “but by the content of their character” (King 1963).