Clay's and his close friend, Russ Eagle, journey from New Orleans to Shreveport. Then, from Jackson, Mississippi, to Birmingham, Alabama to visit civil rights sites and shrines. John Steinbeck witnessed the appauling white response to the integration of the schools in New Orleans in December of 1960 and was so repulsed by what he saw that he gave up his journey. He simply bolted home to New York City. Clay ends his 2024 Travels With Charley journey by finding a better way to wrestle with the unresolved race issues in America. Russ and Clay conclude that every American should make a journey of this sort. They also learned that the country's race history is much more problematic than they previously knew.