The Laurel High School choir will lend its voices to help kick off a multi-city concert tour retracing the historic route of the 1961 Freedom Rides.
The choir will take the stage March 21 at First Lutheran Church in Ellicott City, performing with the North Carolina-based Lenoir-Rhyne University A Cappella Choir.
The performance will be the first stop of a weeklong tour honoring the 1961 Freedom Rides — interracial bus trips through the South organized by civil rights activists to challenge segregation in interstate travel and bus terminals following a Supreme Court ruling declaring the practice unconstitutional. Many of the riders were college students who faced violence and imprisonment while demanding equal treatment under the law.
The tour will include stops throughout the South, including cities in North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi. Organizers said the project examines how travel and collaborative performance can shape perspective and understanding across cultures.
The Laurel High School choir and its director, Kevin Lewis, were selected after being recommended by Frances Fonza, choral director at Southeastern Louisiana University, which is presenting the tour along with Lenoir-Rhyne University.
“We wanted to pair up with a quality high school program in the area,” said Ryan Luhrs, associate professor of music and director of the Lenoir-Rhyne A Cappella Choir. “Laurel was recommended, and Dr. Kevin Lewis is doing fantastic work there.”
The tour is the latest recognition for the Laurel High School choir.
In 2025, the choir placed first in the 97.1 WASH-FM Christmas Choir Competition, earning $5,000 for its music program. The choir also performed at the opening of “Miracle on 34th Street, The Musical” at Capital One Hall in Tysons in December.
The March 21 concert will take place in Ellicott City, in part because of its history as a hub of Underground Railroad activity and its proximity to civil rights efforts in nearby Baltimore.
“Traveling this route, joining voices with the singers of SELU and their director, Dr. Frances Fonza, and telling this story in the very places where history unfolded 65 years ago — this is a rare and powerful opportunity,” said Luhrs.
At each stop, the Lenoir-Rhyne choir will partner with local choirs and historically Black colleges and universities to present concerts blending narration, freedom songs and choral works. Surviving Freedom Riders in each community will be invited to attend and be recognized.
Luhrs said the choir will perform songs such as “We Shall Overcome,” “Freedom,” “This Little Light of Mine” and “We Shall Not Be Moved.”
Lewis said it was an honor for Laurel students to take part in the project and represent Maryland’s arts community.
“This is a great opportunity to tell some stories and make sure that a lot of our history is passed on,” Lewis said. “And to be able to do that through art, music, poetry and recitation is very wonderful.”
Amanda Smith, senior creative content writer for Lenoir-Rhyne, said the tour aims to promote unity through song.
“Making music together, and particularly the act of singing, seems to be part of creating that connection between people,” Smith said.
The tour will conclude March 27 in Mississippi. Concerts are free and open to the public unless otherwise noted.