There are places you go that change you, whether by reinforcing thoughts and beliefs or changing them altogether or some pleasant combination of the two, some special alchemy of time and place and experience distilled down to an essential feeling. You can't describe it, not really, because you don't know you'd never felt it until the first time you felt it and that feeling was so raw, so new, so unknown that processing might take time.

The National Civil Rights Museum is one such place.

Last Friday, Austin Peay State University's football team got the chance to visit this national landmark in Memphis, where the Govs stayed the evening ahead of Saturday's game at Ole Miss. They walked the grounds of the Lorraine Motel. They learned about the last hours of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s life, which he spent there. They took in exhibitions on slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, student sit-ins, the Montgomery bus boycotts, the Freedom Riders—room after room of some of the most powerful stories in American history. The feelings are overwhelming—rage, hope, optimism, despair—all emotions that commingle in these rooms and stand shoulder-to-shoulder together to present a raw view of America, flawed and beautiful and trying and failing and trying again to live up to its own promise of liberty and justice for all. We are a land of wealth and opportunity, and crippling poverty and disease; bravery and cruelty have a way of jockeying for position that the NCRM manages to explain without even trying. 

This is heady stuff. Important stuff. Bigger-than-football stuff. Sixty-five years ago, many sports teams, including this football team—of young men, Black and White men, together for a common goal and united by it—would have been either an anomaly or outright unheard of. We don't often get a chance to stop and think of where and what we've come from, to remember the struggle and sacrifice, appreciate how much better our society is today and yet still acknowledge how much work remains for the less fortunate, the disenfranchised, the put-down and put-open of that same society. The National Civil Rights Museum isn't there to pat anybody on the back for a job well-done but to remind us of the struggle others put into moving society to where it needed to be in the first place. Don't forget them, don't forget their struggles and don't forget that you too can be a voice and an agent of change and improvement.

As the Govs traveled through the building, learning things they never knew or remembering things lost to an old history class back in high school, watching how they took in these exhibits took on an intensely personal feeling, that we were witnessing these young men witnessing something that was moving them in profound ways, that would go on to matter to them long after the day itself ended. We asked a few what went through their minds and what they experienced traversing through a history that almost never gets the full treatment it requires until you get to a place like the NCRM.

Here's what they said:

Trey Goodman, freshman receiver: "It was very intriguing. Walking through the museum and looking at all the artifacts makes you think a lot. The biggest question that was on my mind was 'Where would our world be without slaves?" At the same time, it was very empowering to see where our nation has been and what we've come to. I wish we would've had more time, there were so many details in the museum that I wanted to observe but I just didn't have time for. It was a great trip and I have the utmost respect for Coach Walden for taking us to experience the National Civil Rights Museum."

Baniko Harley, graduate receiver: "It was a very emotional and humbling experience for me. It was my first time visiting the motel and of course we all knew the story and how Dr. King was shot but what I didn't know was the other stories from people that are never mentioned in our history books. I'll just like to thank everybody who put that in place for us to visit the museum."

Bucky Williams, junior lineman: "I thought the Civil Rights Museum was an awesome experience. It was something that I have not done before and I think that it is a must for everyone to experience. It was impactful, because while I have learned about the Civil Rights Movement, I have never been to a place with such an impact on our country and the place that played a major role in our country's future."

Kordell Jackson, graduate defensive back: "I had so much anger at first just looking at everything they went through! But as I continued to go through the museum I was so appreciative of everything that was done for me to be able to do what I'm doing now! While walking and taking it all in, I was grateful."

Scotty Walden, head coach: "I thought it was an unbelievable and eye-opening experience for players and coaches. It really made us step back from football and think about all those who came before and stood up for change. And their efforts have helped us progress to where we are today—even though we still have a long way to go. I am so thankful to our administration for allowing us to get that experience as a team. It reinforces our message that unity is the secret. I think our guys saw that isn't only applicable to football but to life."