We began to day in Montgomery, Alabama where we had a chance to see the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and to stand on the steps of the Capital Building where Governor George Wallace gave his "Segregation Now, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever" declaration. I took a picture with my white collegue hand and hand right in that spot! (That along with other pictures were taken with friends camaras so won't be posted on this blog quite yet). Ha! Gov. Wallace is all I could think. It was quite amazing how close the Dexter Street Baptist Church is to those steps. The only church where MLK served as senior pastor and the meeting place of the first SCLC when they were organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
From there we went to the Civil Rights Memorial Center which is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. What a place. We watched a short movie about the efforts of the Civil Rights leaders and the work that this center still does today to fight injustice everywhere. I had heard Morris Deas (one of their founders) speak a few years ago in Chapel Hill. I am still inspired by the work that he and others have done to keep the goals of the Civil Rights movement in existence today. There was heavy security at this place because they often get threats since they try a lot of cases against the KKK.
From there we spent time at the memorial. There are pictures posted on the blog already of this wonderful memorial. . .and the teachers running their fingers over the names on it.
After there we went to the Rosa Parks museum. We didn't get to stay because they had another visitor there who didn't want to tour the museum with us. It was Amy from that show Little People Big World. I was in the gift shop when she came by so I missed her, but others in my group got to take pictures with her. Apparently, she wasn't very nice. We did get to go in the giftshop where I bought a couple of posters and a button that says, "Women who behave rarely make history!"
From there it was on to Birmingham and the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame (written about on another post.)
Finally, we went to our final destination which was SO moving. We had the opportunity to spend an evening with Chris McNair. Father of Denise McNair, one of the little girls who died in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. We watched Spike Lee's documentary, Four Little Girls and then had dinner with him and listened to him speak. His daughter cooked a meal for us. He was so personable and kind. My favorite part about him was how there was no hate, as far as I could tell, about this tragic event that happened to him. He is a photographer so we got to see many of the photos that he has taken throughout the years of the Movement. There was also a room in memory of his daughter with some of her childhood things like her little sewing machine, dolls, and the shoes and purse she was wearing on that tragic day. Also in a glass case was the brick that was lodged in her skull.
In Denise's memorial room there is also a letter that Spike Lee wrote to him in 1984 when he was still an unknown filmmaker expressing interest in documenting the story of the murders of those little girls.
At the end of the night, I took a picture with Mr. McNair with my friends camera which will be posted later.
This trip has made me reflect in so many way in this short amount of time. I am called to the words that I wrote in the purpose statement back in the spring about how my purpose in life is to "Stand up for justice." Again I have been called to the words that I created in my Landmark Seminar at the end of June to be "Courageous and Committed." I bought two framed pictures with those words and pictures of the Movement. I had no idea what all of that meant less than a week ago. I thought I did. But now I do. I have work to do for Denise and all the other martyrs. I have work to do for my children and my grandchildren. I have a commitment that I placed on a wall in Montgomery, Alabama to fight injustice.
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