ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In 2017, 25 Spiritus Christi Church parishioners spent a week traveling across the country on what they called a "race convoy." The group traveled to places that held significance in the Civil Rights Movement.

"In Birmingham, Alabama, at the 16th Street Baptist Church, seeing where the bombing was and where the four young teenagers died," said parishioner Stephen Heveron-Smith.

"We went to a lynching museum, where they had shirts along the wall with each person who had been lynched in the state of Alabama," said Reverend Myra Brown.

After returning, Rev. Brown began to reflect on the city's own history. From Frederick Douglass to the race riots of 1964, she felt the area needed a place to remember the past.

The city has approved a portion of Baden Park be designated as a Civil Rights Memorial. Now the group will begin their fundraising and design phase, allowing the community to weigh in on the final plans.

They plan to kick off the fundraising campaign with a celebration on Saturday, September 8 from 12-6 p.m. in the park. Admission is $5 and includes food, drink and music.