Civil Rights: Day Three

Hello readers.   Today, Monday, April 11, 2011, the civil rights group ventured around Alabama, specifically Selma and Montgomery.  First, we saw the capital building where Zoe, Cole and Kaitlin shared their studies on hate groups and Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam.  Afterwards our group walked over to Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and watched an informative video on the church’s history.  We then got to go upstairs and see the very pulpit from which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached!  Then, we saw the fully secured, bulletproof Southern Poverty Law Center.  We went to the visitor center where we were lectured rather uncomfortably about being engaged and staying focused. We started off the morning a little flat, but after the inspirational and moving lecture, we got our creative juices flowing and broke out the grown up thinking. We saw an educational film about the martyrs and victims of the movement and then had the opportunity to go see the memorial. The Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin (she also designed the Vietnam Memorial) is a large round granite table with forty names engraved on it. The names serve as a timeline from the start to the finish of the civil rights movement. There is water constantly running over the memorial which was inspired by a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., quote where he said African Americans would not be satisfied “until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream."  We then entered our names into a wall of people who have taken a pledge to stand up for justice.  Proceeding our lavish gourmet lunch at Wendy’s, we attended our valuable appointment at the Rosa Parks Museum.  It proved to be both interactive and informative.  Then we drove to Selma on Highway 80, the route that stopped at Viola Luizzo’s memorial.  Viola Luizzo was a white woman from Detroit who believed in the civil rights movement and was helping transport black marchers from Montgomery back to Selma.  While she was driving she was traced by white men who pulled up along side her and shot her dead.  We then walked across the very bridge that the foot soldiers of the march had walked over in 1965 and proceeded to the National Voting Rights Museum and had a wonderful tour from Samuel L .Jacskon. We continued onto Birmingham where we ended a long and action-packed day. However, we soon learned that there was a tornado warning for our area, so we panicked and ran for the leaking stairwell while the tornado blew over. It was a fitting end to a long day.

By Zoe and Dawson