"Well, have you been to the jail?"

Well, have you been to the jail?

Certainly, Lord,

Certainly, certainly, certainly, Lord!

These are the words to a Freedom Song and we have now seen several jail cells on this trip. Mohatma Gandhi's strategy was to fill the jail cells of India with those who had committed civil disobedience to show their dissatisfaction with the colonial system. The civil rights movement sought to fill the jails too, with those who violated segregation laws and orders not to peacefully assemble, etc. Every civil rights movement leader is proud of his or her time in jail during the movement. As Hollis Watkins said today, he was "blessed with the opportunity to go to jail" during the time of the sit-ins in Jackson, Mississippi. We have seen a jail and a prison on this trip and replicas of jail cells in civil rights museums. We were also invited by an African American sheriff to tour the Indianola police station and the white deputy took our picture. Dane playfully took my mug shot inside the station. A lot has changed in Mississippi. I was not blessed with the opportunity to go to jail for obeying a higher law as Martin Luther King did in Birmingham and as Hollis Watkins did in Jackson. But I was blessed with being able to meet Hollis Watkins, now for the third time, and to bring a wonderful group of IU South Bend students to him. Been down into the South? Certainly, certainly, certainly, Lord.