I sang last night

They say it ain't over til the fat lady sings. I'm a fat lady and I sang last night at a Karaoke bar on Beale Street and now we are on the bus headed back to Durham. I am able to write this post while riding because I had a heavy dose of Dramamine earlier. The picture that you see in this post is the view that I've had for the last few days on this bus. We definitely spent more time here collectively than anywhere else. The 2 heads you see are if our fearless leaders Owen and Anthony. They have done a remarkable job planning and implementing this trip Originally when we began I wished that we could have done the trip in reverse order so that the long 12 hour drive that we are on now could have been over with after the first day but today I changed my mind. I think it was so meaningful to end at the place where King took his last breath in Memphis for a couple of reasons.  First of all it makes sense that we end in the place where the common denominator for much of the Movement ended. However, it also is symbolic that it's from here we leave to go back home taking up where King had to leave off. So now as the bus driver, Daniel, played for us while leaving Memphis...ON MY WAY HOME!!!!

where Dr. King took his last breath

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth

This is Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth.  He is a Civil Rights activist in Birmingham.  His story is remarkable.  His house was bombed as he lay in bed one night. He was beaten by an angry mob very badly for trying to register his kids into an all White school, he organized marches and events during the Movement.  My favorite story is how he was hung upside down in jail when he was arrested.  While upside down, he managed somehow to write the words "Segregation is a sin" on the wall of the jail cell.  Because of this, he said, I wasn't afraid of their jail.  There is a monument in the Kelly Ingram park that depicts this event.  A nice gentleman in the park explained that to me.  He also pointed out that the tree that is planted behind the 16th Street Baptist church after the girls died has four branches that reach towards the sky.  Coincidence.  I don't think so.

I was shocked to find out about Rev. Shuttlesworth.  It seems to get much recognition as a Civil Rights Activist you have to have been killed.  A goal for myself is to learn more about and teach about the lesser know activists like Rev. Shuttlesworth.

Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham

16th Street Baptist Church

The next to last day of our trip was spent in Birmingham.  We started off in Kelly Ingram Park which sets on the opposite corner of the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church pictured above.  I put my music in my ears as we walked around the park and church.  I didn't want to engage in conversation.  I just wanted to think about those 4 little girls who lost their life at that church.  Those 4 innocent lives who had nothing to do with the hatred that existed in that place.  

Later we went through the Civil Rights Museum of Birmingham.  What a place!  I thought that we had seen the best Civil Rights Memorial yesterday, but this one was the best as far as facts go.  It details the history of Blacks and Whites in Alabama and compares it to the rest of the Nation through timelines.  There are visual displays that are absolutely magnificent.  For example, when comparing the "separate but equal" nation that America pretended to have--they compared infant mortality rate, blue and white collar jobs, dollars spent on students, pupils in a classroom, etc.  Instead of just giving statistics, they had visual displays.  Crosses that stood for those percentages of infant mortality rates.  Blue and White shirts that measured those jobs like a bar graph, and a stack of books to represent that amount of money spent on black students and white students.  It was clear to see the disparities through these exhibits.  The museum also has several movies to watch about different parts of the Movement.  When Owen, one of our trip leaders, told us that we had 2 hours in the Museum, I thought that that would be more than enough time and when I finished I would go into the 16th Street Baptist Church for a tour and to see the memorial for the 4 girls.  Well. . .  2 hours was barely enough time for me to get around the entire museum.  I had to skip the last 2 exhibits so I could hit up the gift shop.  

At the gift shop I purchased a sign to go in the foyer of my townhouse.  It says "Colored Entrance"  I asked the white people in the store with me if they would be offended if they came into my house and saw that sign and they said that they wouldn't.  I thought maybe others who came into my house wouldn't understand why I had it there.  I think if folks ask then that will be a wonderful time for me to explain that I am remembering my past.  I won't be able to go by that sign without thinking about the freedoms that were fought for me.

We then got on the bus for our 4 hour ride to Memphis.  So far Memphis has been about relaxing a bit and playing.  We went down to Beale Street where we had ribs and BBKing and Karaoke.  What a lovely way to end the evening.  I liked the ribs the best because the waiter after being very rude to us (in the most loving way, he was really funny) proposed to me.  So I've got a fiance in Memphis.  Never mind that he is older than my daddy. . .he still wants to marry me.  I think it's because I wore mascara tonight, because I managed to get us a discount getting into the BBKing joint as well.  Go figure.  Every night before we turn in, we debrief about our day.  Today's debriefing was my favorite.  Much needed relaxation and fun after a very emotionally draining few days.  

Now tomorrow.  The Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was shot.  Get out the tissues again.

Today in a nutshell. . .as if that's possible

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.