February is Black History Month, and to celebrate it, you’ll learn about how travel experiences abroad have influenced and made an impact on the lives of American black leaders. 

These leaders provide us with meaningful quotes that give us as readers insights from interviews, speeches and written memoirs. Their experiences come from short term travel and relocating to a new country. 

They’ve happened at different times and in countries all around the world. 

Obama to Spain 

After Obama graduated college, he went to Europe before visiting his father’s homeland of Kenya. Obama recounted his stop in Spain to the British Broadcasting Company (BBC):

“...we arrived in Barcelona and it was just daybreak, and I remember walking towards the Ramblas, towards town, and the sun was coming up. And so, those kinds of trips are memorable because they’re part of you as a young person trying to discover what your place in the world is.”

At the end of the president’s 2nd term in July 2016, Obama returned to Spain for a visit and met with the king. 

“Travel also reminds us of what we share and what we have become – the ability for us to recognise ourselves in each other”

For some leaders, these experiences have been shorter immersion experiences, but for others, it has been much more of a longer term immersion experience. 

Kamala Harris in Montreal

When Vice President Kamala Harris was growing up, her mother worked at a local university in Montreal and Vice President Harris spent a good portion of her childhood in Montreal. 

According to the L.A Times, Harris attended most of secondary school (7th grade - senior year of high school) in Montreal and its Westmount neighborhood. Harris graduated from Westmount High School in 1981.

“I used to joke that I felt like a duck because all day long at our new school I'd be saying 'Quoi? Quoi? Quoi?'” - Kamala Harris in her 2019 Memoir “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey”

Based on Harris’ quote, we see the universal challenge of travel that comes from learning a language and a sense of the cultural assimilation that takes place when moving to a new country. 

During Vice President Kamala Harris’ first days in office, she made one of her first international calls to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Treadeau. These travel experiences abroad have created an ability to strengthen international relationships. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In Berlin 

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. visited the Berlin Wall, it was less than five years old and John F. Kennedy had been assassinated within recent memory. Dr. King gave a moving speech that focused on the call for unity around the world. 

“There is no East, no West, no North, no South, but one great fellowship of love throughout the whole, wide world.” 

“Men and women search for meaning, hope for fulfillment, yearn for faith in something beyond themselves, and cry desperately for love and community to support them in this pilgrim journey.”

He called to break down the barriers that were separating people and to find meaning in literal and figurative common ground, given that Jim Crow laws and segregation still existed at the time of his speech.  

In the honor of late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many countries around the world have incorporated his name on streets and in public spaces around the world.  

The words and connections that American black leaders have made around the world continue to leave an indelible mark on global community. Their work and effort to break down barriers and bring the world closer together resonates with our organization’s motto: “Through international exposure, we mature to be a more understanding, respectful, and impassioned world.” We will only grow and truly embrace that maturation as a worldwide community if black voices and the black community have the support of all organizations in our space. 

The importance of organizations that support diversity and inclusion, and during this month particularly, organizations that support black students and students of color. In the field of international education, diverse student representation in study abroad matters, and with that in mind, we ask that you please support our friends the following organizations:

Teens of Color Abroad

Diversity Abroad

URep Abroad

Did we miss a great organization that we should add to the list? Please email Joe Meringolo (joe@edodyssey.com)

Sources:

Belfer, Ilana. “Kamala Harris’ Montreal High School Posted Her Yearbook Photos From 1981.” MTL Blog, 8 Nov. 2020, www.mtlblog.com/en-ca/news/montreal/kamala-harris-montreal-high-school-posted-her-yearbook-photos-from-1981.

Bilefsky, Dan. “Kamala Harris’s ‘Canadian Dream.’” The New York Times, 3 Nov. 2020, www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/world/canada/kamala-harris-canada.html.

Harris, Nadia-Elysse. “Martin Luther King, Jr. Traveled About 6 Million Miles Between 1957 And 1968.” TravelNoire, 18 Jan. 2019, travelnoire.com/martin-luther-king-jr-traveled-about-6-million-miles-between-1957-and-1968.

MacDonald, Thomas. “Former Montrealer VP Kamala Harris Spoke About Her Time In The City With Trudeau.” MTL Blog, 2 Feb. 2021, www.mtlblog.com/en-ca/news/montreal/former-montrealer-vp-kamala-harris-spoke-about-her-time-in-the-city-with-trudeau.

Reynolds, Christopher. “The 5 Places That Shaped Kamala Harris, Including Montreal.” Los Angeles Times, 9 Nov. 2020, www.latimes.com/travel/story/2020-08-11/five-places-that-have-shaped-kamala-harris.

Selena Ross, and Selena Ross. “‘How Canadian Is She?’ Probably More than You Think, Say Kamala Harris’ One-Time Montreal Classmates.” Montreal, 12 Aug. 2020, montreal.ctvnews.ca/how-canadian-is-she-probably-more-than-you-think-say-kamala-harris-one-time-montreal-classmates-1.5060720.

Wazman, Olivia. “What Martin Luther King Jr. Said About Walls During His 1964 Visit to Berlin.” Time, 18 Jan. 2019, time.com/5504826/martin-luther-king-wall-history.

Williams, Yohuru. “Martin Luther King and ‘God’s Children’ on Both Sides of the Border Wall.” Progressive.Org, 9 May 2019, progressive.org/dispatches/martin-luther-king-gods-children-borderwall-Williams-190115.