Protests against the U.S. Army School of the Americas, now renamed the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, at Fort Benning, Ga., began in 1990 on the first anniversary of the slaughter of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter in El Salvador. A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible were trained at the School of the Americas, a combat training school for Latin American soldiers.

Since then the protest action has turned into a major convocation for groups from across the United States committed to human rights work, building nonviolent and peaceful earth, and working against militarism and unjust U.S. foreign policy. Thousands, perhaps as many as 20,000 gather in and around Columbus, Ga., for three days of rallies and teach-ins that culminate in a funeral procession to the gates of Fort Benning. Every year some of the protesters – about 40 last year -- commit acts of civil disobedience and are arrested to demonstrate their opposition to the School of the Americas.

Here are some of the stories of some the people making that journey to Georgia.