This video features photos and video footage from our civil rights trip. We dedicate this blog and this video to all of the Foot Soldiers whose names are often forgotten, but played a huge role by participating in the Civil Rights Movement.
Atlanta: Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
Jensen Roll:
This was a very well put together site in my opinion. Seeing the wagon that Dr. King was carried in was very nice to see and then seeing his burial site with his wife was also very powerful and moving. I also loved seeing so many people there at the site compared to all of the other places we had been. It was very important to me to see parents with young children teaching them about the movement. There are many people my age who still have no clue how important this movement has been in our history as a nation and in human growth.
Being in the old Ebenezer Church was amazing. They had old recordings of MLK’s sermons that they were replaying. If you closed your eyes it was just like being there when he preached there years ago. The sanctuary looked as if congregations still met there each week.
Cassidy Stratton:
This was not my first time visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, but I did have a completely different experience that my prior visit. I have always admired Dr. King’s leadership throughout the Civil Rights Movement, however, this visit was different because of my new appreciation for Coretta Scott King. It was not until this trip that I learned (in detail) her extreme contributions to the movement. She was dedicated to helping people and most definitely one of her husband’s #1 supporters. I now look up to both of them. Although they were a unit (husband and wife), I now understand their individual efforts in regards to the movement.
One of the exhibits in the memorial really hit home for me because it included all of the places that he visited and helped fight for civil rights, and Chicago was one of the places listed. I have heard numerous stories from my family about Dr. King’s impact on Chicago, but it was not until I actually saw the city engraved on the ground that I understood that he made a difference there. I am extremely appreciative.
My feet near the Chicago, IL engraving.
Hannah Orth:
Graves of Dr. King and Coretta Scott King.
We went outside to the crypt of Dr. King and Coretta, which was my favorite part of the center. The idea to place them floating on top of the water has such a biblical and symbolic meaning. Jesus walked on water, and Coretta and Dr. King are floating there similarly to Jesus. The blueness of the water and the whiteness of the crypt provided such a dramatic feeling when I first saw them. I was taken aback by how much seeing their memorial shocked me. The eternal flame across from their crypt gave me chills as well. I think the flame should be somewhere more dramatic. I think it seems like an afterthought; however, I still felt so empowered standing there. The most magical moment of the trip was watching a dad wrap his young son in his arms and explain the eternal flame. I nearly cried at passing of knowledge, history, culture, and love in this one innocent moment. I wanted to take a picture, but this was their moment and I did not want to have a piece of it; it seemed selfish.
I can affirmatively say that my life is different because of this trip. Now, I trust love to conquer all the worst parts of the world. I believed in the power of love before but not like this, not with this much conviction.
The thousands of people in this movement inspire me. The movement is associated with Dr. King and Rosa Parks and thousands of others are never mentioned. Those are the foot soldiers that pushed the movement to the level it needed to be. I can only hope to inspire a few people, let alone a whole population. I am not sure where my future will go, but regardless, this trip has changed me for the better. Thank you.
Alabama: The Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site
Our visit to the Tuskegee Airmen museum was one of our most unique experiences. Originally an experiment to train civilians as pilots resulted in some of the most successful flight crews. This hangar and field, named after the second president of the Tuskegee Institute, Robert Russa Moton, was the “only primary flight-training facility for Black pilots during World War II.” In 1948, Truman’s Executive Order 9981 desegregated the military. This is a very early event in the Civil Rights Movement, which helped start the larger movement that followed.
The hangar was decorated with two practice planes and dress-up clothes! Our class thoroughly enjoyed putting on the coats and outfits similar to those that were worn. The museum had bios of several people who had served essential roles in the workings of this hangar. The museum featured not only excellent leaders, but also civilians as well like Alice Dungey Gray who was the facility’s only permanent Parachute Rigger. Charles Anderson was one of the instructors and leaders of the flight school. When Eleanor Roosevelt came to see what they were doing and their progress, Anderson piloted the flight she requested. Eleanor Roosevelt supported and advocated for the Tuskegee Airmen from then on.
The museum had rooms like the preparation room where pilots would wait for their solo flight tests as well as study the air force’s planes as well as Germany’s planes to be able to distinguish between the two. Additionally, the tearoom was the first lunchroom that did not segregate between white and black.
A personal anecdote, as I was flipping through the books they had kept that identified the planes of the United States Air force, I found the type of bomber plane my paternal grandpa was a gunner on during World War II. Once I confirmed the type of plane with my father, he told me that the Tuskegee Airmen escorted my grandpa’s flights. Since my grandpa has been deceased for a few years now, it was nice to connect with the Tuskegee Airmen through him and to thank them for protecting him.
Montgomery: Southern Poverty Law Center
Since its creation in 1971, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been committed to finding and eradicating hate groups throughout the United States. Our visit to the SPLC headquarters made it clear that the fight for the equal respect of races, religions, sexual orientation, and more, is ongoing. While the center did show us a video focused on the Civil Rights and featured an exhibit honoring 40 martyrs of the movement, the biggest takeaway was its focus on hate and bigotry post-Civil Rights era.
The most interesting aspect of the center was the “Wall of Tolerance”, which we all signed, making a pledge to fight injustice.
Visit the comprehensive Southern Poverty Law Center website!
Civil Rights Memorial.
Montgomery: Dexter Church Parsonage and Home to Dr. King
Image of Dr. King’s home in Montgomery.
This was perhaps the best tour we had on the trip. Shirley Cherry was our tour guide for seeing the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church parsonage. She was a retired schoolteacher who had more energy and information than all of us combined. Her knowledge of the movement was often firsthand and if not firsthand, than a very close secondhand. She told us about meeting the Mr. Peters, the man who arrested Rosa Parks. He actually came to the house and got a tour.
Before Dr. King came to Dexter, the church had been pastored by Rev. Vernon John. It was he who really got the community ready to bring in someone like Dr. King. He often preached on the future blacks needed to strive for and what was in their way to get there. Some say that Vernon John was to Dr. King like John the Baptist was to Jesus.-class black church. At the time churches were one of the only institutions that blacks could own and they were often owned by upper-class blacks. Dexter Church owned the house (309 Jackson Street) that Dr. King lived in while he pastored the church. The house is located on Centennial Hill, a middle class black neighborhood. Down the street in the biggest house on the block lived Vera Harris, who helped to house many of the freedom riders.
Before going into the King’s old house we saw the place where a bomb had left a hole in the porch. Upon entering the house it was like going back in time. Many of the things in the house were original and it was very easy, with the help of Shirley to envision everything that took place in the house. We got to see where the family would eat, sleep, host guests, and many other things. In the dining room there was a keyboard where we reflected on Dr. Kings statement, “There are no gradations in the image of God. Every man from a treble white to a bass black are significant on God’s keyboard, precisely because everyone is made in the image of God.”
We also spent a long time in the kitchen where Dr. King sat at the kitchen table late one night and contemplated God’s calling for his life. In this moment he found that he need not fear anything of this world and that God had plans for him. I can remember feeling how easy it was to relate to those same fears he expressed and the comfort that God can be in those moments. It was very moving to hear about Dr. King sending home artificial flowers to his wife. For her this was out of the ordinary. Her husband usually sent real flowers, so she called and asked why the change. He answered by saying that he wanted her to have something that would always be there, as if he knew he would soon be killed.
Montgomery: Rosa Parks Museum
The Rosa Parks story is one that most people know to be the start of the Civil Rights Movement, so this museum was considered to be a historical refresher for us.
Of course there was a video to begin the museum tour, which included interviews from Foot Soldiers from the movement who participated in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. What was interesting about the interviews were the different reasonings for participating in the boycott. Some people refused to ride the buses because their parent’s did not, while others were just simply tired of being treated badly (similar to Rosa Parks’ reason). It showed that everyone had their own attachment to the movement. Although the video provided personal testimonies related to Rosa Parks, what was to come after the video was the most intriguing part of the visit.
Our tour guide as well as the museum’s realistic audio and video segments provided us with an interactive experience to learn about a topic that we were familiar with. Unfortunately we were unable to take pictures in the museum, but we were allowed to snap a few with the statue in the below photos.
Jensen posing with the Rosa Parks statue.
Cassidy posing with the Rosa Parks statue.
Doug posing with the Rosa Parks statue.
Hannah posing with the Rosa Parks statue.
The overall visit to the Rosa Parks Museum helped us gain more appreciation for the one who they consider to be the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”
Selma: Edmund Pettus Bridge
Image of the Edmund Pettus Bridge
Determined to reach Montgomery, demonstrators walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in rows of two on Bloody Sunday. Awaiting them at the first intersection was a wall of state troopers who refused to let them pass. On that day, Sunday March 7, 1965, more than 600 Blacks were bludgeoned while their lungs and eyes burned as tear gas filled the air. The beating endured that day made international news. Civil rights leaders made a plea for those touched by the events to join the fight. An outpouring of support came from across as people of all colors made their way to Selma. The following Tuesday an even greater crowd made the trek across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, but state troopers again stood in their way. Led by Dr. King the group of roughly 2,500 knelt to pray, then walked back across the bridge to the Brown Chapel. On March 16, under the federal protection of 2,000 National Guardsmen, 8,000 people began their 54-mile walk to Montgomery. The journey took five days: marches slept alongside the road and many walked barefoot.
Standing at the apex of the bridge peering down at the road below was an unexplainable feeling. With the water below and the image of an awaiting doom hundreds of feet away; one can only respect the courage of those who decided to make a stand for change. As Rev. C.T. Vivian, a prominent activist during the time, said, supporters had to be committed “so deeply that dying is secondary”. Their willingness to sacrifice their lives was admirable.
Image of the Edmund Pettus Bridge
We did not make the grueling march to Montgomery like supporters of the Selma campaign, we were fortunate to have the luxury of simply reflecting on the experience as we sat on our bus. However, on the way we did stop at the memorial site of Viola Liuzzo. The mother of five from Detroit was the first White woman killed during the movement. After the march on March 25, Liuzzo was assassinated on Route 80 between Selma and Montgomery. A car with four Klansmen pulled up beside her and fired into her Oldsmobile. She was struck twice in the head and killed instantly. Her car veered off the road and crashed. The memorial along Route 80 is erected where her car came to rest.
As one of Liuzzo’s daughters put it decades later, “she came, she marched, and she died for what she believed in.”
Viola Liuzzo’s death and memorial site.
Selma: Lowndes County Interpretive Center
The Lowndes County Interpretive Center lies half way between the 54 mile march from Selma to Montgomery. The center was located on the same land that one of the Tent Cities during the time that many land owners would take back the land from black people who voted occupied. Two of the most influential parts of this center were the tour guides and the film that we watched before going into the exhibits. One of the tour guides was born in 1959 and can remember seeing the different marches and hearing about all the different steps being taken for the black race. He spoke a lot about our duty today as voting citizens, regardless of race, and how we should use our right to vote and not take it for granted. The film was very touching and did a great job getting some interviews with foot soldiers of the time. Some phrases that stood out were, “I saw the blood flowing,” referring to Bloody Sunday and “they didn’t stop at the bridge, they rode their horses all the way back into our neighborhood, beating us throughout the night.” It was hearing this from people who had been there that really left a lasting impression on me.
Bellow I have added three pictures that can give you an idea of the center. The first is a visual of the march from Selma to Montgomery. The second is one of the cattle prods that officers would use against people in the Civil Rights Movement. The third is was one of the most shocking images in the center for me to see. This was a sign that was clearly visible on the side of the road.
Selma: Brown AME Chapel Church
Image of the church.
During segregation churches were one of the few things Blacks could universally own, operate, and fully control. The Brown Chapel AME Church, just blocks from downtown Selma, became headquarters for the Salma voter’s rights campaign as well as the organizing point for the Selma to Montgomery march operation. The Churches location is of utter importance. The George Washington Carver housing projects surrounds the church’s building. The homes housed a large portion of Selma’s Black population. Messages and itinerary could be quickly passed to Black citizens. The pews, standing area, and street outside of the church would flood with individuals waiting for orders to mobilize.
Dr. King was granted an office next to that of the acting pastor of Brown Chapel AME during the Selma to Montgomery. The marches on Bloody Sunday, Turnaround Tuesday, and the final march all the way to steps of the Alabama State Capitol all started from the steps of Brown Chapel AME. Thousands of individuals, of all races and from all across the country, were a part of quite possibly the peak of the Civil Rights movement in Selma.
One of those individuals was our tour guide, Sam Walker, is commemorated for his efforts to aid the movement at a memorial in the front of the church.
Selma: Slavery and Civil War Museum
“Turn your cell phones off and get off the bus! Guys on the left with backs to the wall, and girls to the right with backs to the wall.”
The quote above is what our tour guide, Sam Walker, yelled at us when we arrived at the museum. Some of us were caught off guard, while others knew what we were about to experience: a slavery simulation.
We did what he said: turned off our phones and lined up. He proceeded to pat down the guys, referring to them as “bucks.” Then he searched the mouths and hands of the women, calling us “wenches.” We were then instructed to line up in a small room, still separated, in which he explained that he was our master and anything he said went. We no longer had names, instead we had numbers. We no longer spoke our native language, we spoke his language. We were no longer human beings, we were animals.
The remainder of the simulation illustrated what it was like to be a slave, waiting in a small waiting room for weeks, sailing on a ship for months, and suffering on a plantation for years.
It was such a moving experience that will stick with a lot of us for the rest of our lives. Learning about the harsh realities of life prior to the Civil Rights Movement is essential because it puts things in to perspective.
After the simulation we had an honest discussion with our tour guide about our experience as “slaves” for 30 minutes. Everyone of course had different things to say about it, so I encourage anyone who is reading this blog to go visit this museum.
After the discussion we were given an opportunity to explore the museum, which was filled with beautiful Black and African art. There is not much to say about it, so I will let the photos below speak to you.
The Foot Soldiers 