Montgomery, AL

This morning we drove from Selma to Montgomery. We stopped at the National Parks Service site at about the midpoint. It is a new and very nice facility that documents the march and the tent city that was built on the location after the Voting Rights Act passed, blacks registered, and were kicked out of their homes by landlord/bosses. When I asked about Selma, they told us that there will eventually be facilities in Selma and Montgomery dedicated to the beginning and end of the march.

In Montgomery we had a tour of Dr. Martin Luther King’s former church. As they point out, it’s the only church that was “his.” We then walked past the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has a cool Civil Rights memorial. After lunch, we went to the Rosa Parks Museum. The day had a much more positive feeling than the other days because the sites were all located in central Montgomery, the capital of Alabama, which is economically alive. We did eat lunch with nearly all white people, which was a reminder that “the work isn’t finished” in a city that is more than half black. I think the day was more positive also because the museums were both very new and used multimedia to communicate the indignity of Jim Crow laws. Also, being in the very places where Rosa Parks and Dr. King (can you see the influence of being down here on my linguistic preference to include the title of the Civil Rights leader?) bravely fought back was powerful. So, in Montgomery, the distance to go is hidden and the distance traveled is easier to see.

Now we’re in Birmingham.