Alabama: Confronting Slavery, Jim Crow and its Painful Past

You can’t step into Alabama without stepping into the slave markets, the Jim Crow laws of segregation and smack into the Civil Rights Movement and how cities like Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham confronted racial inequities. And to the courage and unwavering steadfastness of the people, the foot soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement, whose ancestors journey began by being enslaved.

Montgomery

Montgomery, established in 1819, is a relatively old inland city originally thriving as a consequence of proximity to transportation and agriculture. Rivers, railroads, cotton. And slaves. Lots of slaves. Montgomery, in fact, ranked among the top tier of American cities in the slave trade.

Montgomery had grown into one of the most prominent slave trading communities in Alabama by 1860. At the begging of the Civil War, the city had a larger slave population than Mobile, Alabama; New Orleans, Louisiana or Natchez, Mississippi. Slave traders dominated the city’s economy from 1848 to 1860 making it one of the most important slave trading communities in the United States with offices located primarily along Commerce and Market Streets (now Dexter Avenue). After the Alabama legislatures banned free black people from residing in the state in 1833, enslavement was the only legally authorized status for African Americans in Montgomery.

Although slavery was abolished in 1865, Jim Crow laws, mandating racial segregation in public facilities throughout former Confederate States, began in the 1870s…until the 1950s when the Civil Rights Movement with marches and protests pushed the boundaries of racial inequality and injustice to the American forefront for the country and the world to see. And, the state of Alabama, once the epicenter of deeply entrenched racist policies is now the state coming to terms with its past and the role and roots of the Civil Rights Movement in the state.

Spending time in Montgomery had been on my list of places to visit for a while now, especially since the opening of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice founded by the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, it opened April 26, 2018.

The profound enormity of this sacred Memorial paying tribute to men, women and children taken, yet again, to be brutalized by the hate and bondage of racism wrapped around their necks as they hung just for being black. The Memorial is intended to acknowledge past racial terrorism and advocate for social justice in America.

I read that Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and who initiated the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, was inspired by the examples of the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany, and the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, South Africa, to create a single memorial to victims of white supremacy in the United States. I’ve seen these memorials too and how these countries have taken responsibility for their past actions in the annihilation of human beings. Their intention is to learn from the past and to never forget. Because in not learning or forgetting, we are doomed to repeat these kinds of abominations.

Spending time in Montgomery, Selma and Birmingham during the coronavirus pandemic meant closed doors to some of the places on my list but for the most part, just being in these cities, with their powerful connections to the Civil Rights Movement, was moving enough.

Let’s start in Montgomery.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery opens with this exhibit of African men, women and children kidnapped and taken in chains to the Americas to create wealth for the Europeans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, from Ghana, is the sculptor. This Memorial does not whitewash or tone down past abuses. Instead it goes full throttle into the ugliness, fear and violence that defined the battle for racial equality.
“For over two centuries, enslaved black people in the United States were bartered, sold, abused, exploited, tortured and confined in involuntary servitude. An ideology of white supremacy allowed courts and political leaders to justify the enslavement of black people even though the Constitution required liberty and justice for all. In the 19th century, the Domestic Slave Trade brought over a million enslaved black people to the American South. After emancipation, more than 90 percent of all African Americans in the United States lived in the South,” according to information provided by the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The agony of being enslaved is depicted on the face of one of the sculpture’s created by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo. from Ghana, at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

“More than 4400 African American men, women, and children were hanged, burned alive, shot, drowned, and beaten to death by white mobs between 1877 and 1950. Millions more fled the South as refugees from racial terrorism, profoundly impacting the entire nation. Until now, there has been no national memorial acknowledging the victims of racial terror lynchings. On a six-acre site atop a rise overlooking Montgomery, the national lynching memorial is a sacred space for truth-telling and reflection about racial terror in America and its legacy,” The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama. The memorial includes 805 hanging steel rectangles, representing each of the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place.
By studying records in counties across the United States, researchers documented almost 4400 “racial terror lynchings” in the post-Reconstruction era between 1877 and 1950. Most took place in the decades just before and after the turn of the 20th century.
(Sept. 9, 2020)

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery includes 805 hanging steel rectangles, representing each of the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place. Concentrated in 12 Southern states, more than 4,075 documented lynchings of African Americans took place between 1877 and 1950. The silver panels along the concrete wall to the left tell the brief stories as to why a particular person was lynched. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Silver panels inside the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery briefly tell the stories of why a person was deemed deserving of being lynched. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Some of the 805 hanging steel rectangles at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery representing each of the counties in the United States where a documented lynching took place. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The hill area inside the grounds of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery mimics the height or tree used for the lynchings, a public execution by a mob to punish an alleged transgressor, so the crowd could gather around to see this violent act. Even the brown metal cylinders hanging from steel bars mimic the lifeless bodies swinging from trees. (Sept. 9, 2020)

These duplicate steel monuments, lined up by state and county, at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery waiting to be claimed and installed in the counties they represent. (Sept. 9, 2020)

“On multiple occasions in 1955, black women were arrested for challenging Montgomery’s law requiring racial segregation on buses. The arrest of Rosa Parks sparked a mass protest that launched the modern civil rights movement and brought to prominence a young pastor named Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For nearly a year, black people in Montgomery boycotted the buses and challenged racial segregation in court, sustained by the courage of black women who collectively walked thousands of miles to end racial segregation in public transportation.” These ‘Guided by Justice’ sculptures are by Dana King at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery (Sept. 10, 2020)

A close-up of one of the three women sculptures entitled “Guided by Justice” at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Located across the street from the Memorial, and where you get your tickets to enter the Memorial, is the Peace and Justice Memorial Center in Montgomery is dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Enslaved people who arrived at the riverfront or at the train station were paraded up Commerce Street in Montgomery to be sold in the city’s slave markets. “In 1808, the United States Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa. At the same time, the high price of cotton and the development of the cotton gin caused the demand for slave labor to skyrocket in the Lower South, “ according to an Equal Justice Initiative historical market by the Riverfront in Montgomery. “The Domestic Slave Trade was created to meet this demand. Over the next 50 years, slave traders forcibly transferred hundreds of thousands of slaves from the Upper South to Alabama and the Lower South. Between 1808 and 1860, the enslaved population of Alabama grew from less than 40,000 to more than 435,000. Alabama had one of the largest slave populations in America at the start of the Civil War.” Montgomery was the capital of the domestic slave trade in Alabama, one of the two largest slave-owning states in America. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Rosa Parks: The Bus Stop and Museum

She was employed as a seamstress at a local department store and was secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP but the day she stepped on the bus, of a driver she had previously avoided for years, Rosa Parks was eventually told to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. And, when she refused, the bus driver called the police who escorted her off the bus and took her to jail. Her act of quiet defiance lead to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement.

The 382-day Montgomery Bus Boycott was the first sustained mass demonstration against segregation in the U.S. and it launched the 20th century Civil Rights Movement.

Me, standing next to the statue of Rosa Parks at Montgomery Plaza by the Court Street Fountain in Montgomery. The statue is placed 30 feet from the spot where Mrs. Parks is believed to have boarded the segregated bus where she refused to give up her seat to a white man on Dec. 1, 1955. The statue was unveiled on Dec. 1, 2019, some 64 years after Mrs. Parks boarded the bus. I am 64 standing next to a statue of Rosa Parks who is about to make history launching the Montgomery Bus Boycott right here at the foot of Dexter Avenue which is also where the Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march ended a decade later. (Sept. 11, 2020)

Returning home after a long day working as a seamstress for Montgomery Fair Department Store, Rosa Parks boarded the bus at this stop on Dec. 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, when she rejected bus driver James F. Blake’s order to relinquish her seat in the “colored section” to a white passenger, after the whites-only section was filled. Mrs. Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to a white man, a violation of the city’s racial segregation laws. Her arrest, conviction and fine launched the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The Boycott began Dec. 5, the day of Mrs. Parks’ trial, as a protest by African-Americans for unequal treatment they received on the bus line. Refusing to ride the buses, they maintained the Boycott until the U.S. Supreme Court ordered integration of public transportation one year later. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the Boycott, the beginning of the modern Civil Rights Movement. This statue was unveiled Dec. 1, 2019. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The plaque at the corner of Dexter and Commerce by the statue of Rosa Parks at the Rosa Parks Bus Stop in Montgomery. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The exterior of the Montgomery Fair Department Store on 29 Dexter Ave. in Montgomery, Alabama, where Rosa Parks once worked and not too far from the Rosa Parks Bus Stop. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Rosa Parks Museum, located on the Troy University satellite campus in Montgomery has exhibits, and some artifacts from the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott. The library carries her name and it commemorates Mrs. Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on the Montgomery City Bus to a white man brought racial integration to transportation and international attention to the Civil Rights Movement. The museum and library opened in 2000 on the anniversary of the day she refused to give up her seat, December 1. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The entryway exhibit inside the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Rosa Parks statue by Erik Blome at the entryway of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Leaders of the protest realized they had a very long fight ahead. If the protest was going to be successful, they needed to create a transportation system for the protesters. People could not continue to get around only by walking, so they organized an elaborate car pool system. Using 350 cars, several pick-up and drop-off points, and volunteer drivers, the protesters were able to get rides almost anywhere. During the protest, the Montgomery Improvement Association bought 15 cars, paid for gas, tires, batteries and repairs to the cars from money donated to help the protest.
The 382-day boycott was the first sustained mass demonstration against segregation in the U.S. and launched the 20th century Civil Rights Movement. It also thrust Martin Luther King Jr., the elected leader of the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association into national prominence. The boycott ended after a lawsuit filed by Mrs. Parks’ attorney, ultimately led the federal courts to declare segregated bus seating unconstitutional. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Victory Ride as a result of the Montgomery Bus Protest, an exhibit at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, showed that a community can unite for a common purpose and fight injustice without using violence. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Tribute to Montgomery’s ‘Foot Soldiers’ is one of 10 36-inch bronze plaque rounders on the exterior of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery depicting significant events that took place during the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The artwork by Winfred A. Hawkins. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted after being taken to jail is called “The Lone Passenger,” is one of 10 36-inch bronze plaque rounders on the exterior of the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery depicting significant events that took place during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
On Dec. 1, 1955 when Mrs. Parks was arrested for refusing the order of a city bus driver to vacate her seat under the segregation laws of the Jim Crow era, she was taken to police headquarters at City Hall for booking. Then she was taken to the municipal jail on Ripley’s Street. Civil rights leader E.D. Nixon, accompanied by attorney Clifford Durr, soon arrived to post her bail. Mrs. Parks’ arrest galvanized black leaders to organize a boycott of the bus system for Dec. 5. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Montgomery’s historical core is very walkable. And, I spent two days walking and many miles getting to know this city and its mark on the Civil Rights Movement.

This mural, “A Mighty Walk from Selma,” near the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, depicts the 54-mile march from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to the State Capitol in Montgomery in March 1965. Demonstrators along the bottom of the mural march with leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in the center, including Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Ralph Abernathy and John Lewis. (Sept. 9, 2020)

This mural “A Mighty Walk from Selma,” near the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery is an artist representation of the march from Selma to Montgomery from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The “Black Lives Matter” mural, painted in June 2020, at the center of Commerce and Dexter Streets in Montgomery, was the city’s slave market before the Civil War. Slaves of all ages were auctioned, along with land and livestock, standing in line to be inspected. Public posters advertised sales and included gender, approximate age, first name (slaves did not have last names), skill price, complexion and owner’s name. In the 1850s, able field hands brought $1,500; skilled artisans $3,000. In 1859, the city had seven auctioneers and four slave depots. The Alabama State Capital, which was built in 1851, can be seen from the fountain, which was erected in 1885. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The “Black Lives Matter, “ mural at the fountain on Commerce and Dexter in Montgomery, where a slave market was believed to have once stood, was completed June 2020 for Juneteenth, which references June 19, 1865, the day that marks when enslaved people in Texas learned they were free.
In the 1850s, the capital of Alabama was the 75th largest city in the country, but it had the second largest slave population. Every month, thousands of slaves were imported to the city of 8,700 residents from other parts of the country by way of railroad and the Alabama River. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The cast-iron Court Square Fountain, in the Court Square-Dexter Avenue Historic District of Montgomery, Alabama, was established in 1885 on top of an artesian well, which native Alabamians used long before the area was settled by whites. The fountain contains statues based on Greek mythology.
The location is also the place where two communities, Alabama Town and New Philadelphia, had grown together to form what would be called Montgomery. Later, the area was the central location of the Montgomery slave trade. (Sept. 11, 2020)

“… until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous paraphrase of Amos 5:24 is chiseled into the black granite of the Civil Rights Memorial, a moving tribute to those who died in the civil rights struggle between 1954 and 1968. Created by Vietnam Memorial architect Maya Lin in 1989, the memorial sits adjacent to the Civil Rights Memorial Center, sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The circular black granite table records the names of the martyrs and chronicles the history of the movement. A blank spot on the table is meant to signify that the struggle for human rights began well before 1954 and continues to this day. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Civil Rights Memorial, a moving tribute to those who died in the civil rights struggle between 1954 and 1968 inscribes the names of 41 people on the granite fountain as martyrs who were killed in the civil rights movement. Created by Vietnam Memorial architect Maya Lin in 1989, the memorial sits adjacent to the Civil Rights Memorial Center, sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, organized in 1877 is the second black Baptist Church in Montgomery. The present church was built in 1885. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. served as the church pastor from 1954 to 1960 during which time the Montgomery bus boycott was organized. (Sept. 9, 2020)

To commemorate the 50-year anniversary of the voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery, this crosswalk of footprint images to the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, is just one block from the Alabama State Capitol and stands as a reminder for the thousands of people who brought their protest to the state capitol. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, where the third Selma to Montgomery voting rights protest march ended on March 25, 1965, with 25,000 protesters at the foot of the capitol steps on Dexter Avenue. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery, closed to the public due to coronavirus, has overlooked downtown Montgomery from its hilltop setting since 1851. The Confederacy began in the senate chamber when delegates from southern states voted to establish a new nation in February 1861. A bronze sculpture of Jefferson Davis, who was inaugurated the first and only president of the Confederacy in November 1861. The statue was dedicated on November 19, 1940. A little more than a century later in the spring of 1965 the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march culminated at these capitol steps with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. making one of his greatest speeches to an estimated 25,000 people. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Alabama’s First Peoples and Creek Country Monument includes a bronze relief of the state’s earliest inhabitants, including mound builders and Creek Indians along with a plaque describing their subsequent growth as the largest native group in Alabama.
This granite monument bearing landmark events and pivotal eras are a part of the Alabama Bicentennial Park’s celebration of Alabama’s 200-year history from its prehistoric beginnings into the present day. It consists of 16 granite monuments with bronze reliefs depicting various scenes of Alabama history as well as more than 30 bronze plaques that detail important periods in the state’s history. The monuments are arranged chronologically along a large green space semicircle in front of the Office of the Attorney General and the Lurleen Wallace Office Building on each side of Dexter Avenue approaching the Alabama State Capitol. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Cotton State and Slavery Monument includes a bronze relief depicting scenes of chattel slavery with two plaques explaining the growth of cotton production in the state and the state’s resultant dependence on the institution of slavery.
Along the Alabama Bicentennial Park celebrates Alabama’s 200-year history from its prehistoric beginnings into the present day. It consists of 16 granite monuments with bronze reliefs depicting various scenes of Alabama history as well as more than 30 bronze plaques that detail important periods in the state’s history. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Emancipation and Reconstruction Monument includes a bronze relief depicting the confirmation of John H. Rapier as voting registrar in April 1867 and the first statewide election to include African Americans. Rapier was the father of James T. Rapier, who was one of three African Americans from Alabama elected to the U.S. Congress during Reconstruction. In addition, two plaques describe the effect of emancipation and the period of Reconstruction in Alabama.
Along the Alabama Bicentennial Park celebrates Alabama’s 200-year history from its prehistoric beginnings into the present day. It consists of 16 granite monuments with bronze reliefs depicting various scenes of Alabama history as well as more than 30 bronze plaques that detail important periods in the state’s history. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Minister’s Home for the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, built around 1912, in Montgomery. This house has been the home of the church ministers since 1919. Its most famous occupant was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he lived here from 1954 to 1960. During this time, he led the Montgomery Bus Boycott as president of the Montgomery Improvement Association. The boycott would eventually catapult Dr. King into the spotlight as the foremost leader in America’s Civil Rights Movement. (Sept. 9, 2020)

South Jackson Street in Montgomery, which includes the Minister’s Home for the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, was home to African-American professionals, politicians and businessmen since the founding of the neighborhood in the 1870s. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Ben Moore Hotel, which opened its doors Sept. 23, 1951, sits on the corner of Jackson and High Streets in Montgomery, and provided accommodations for African-American travelers during the era of Jim Crow. The vacant and decaying former hotel played a significant part of the South Jackson Street Civil Rights meetings and activities. This landmark building, with its rooftop garden, was also referred to as the Afro Club where some of the top black performers would come to play. (Sept. 9, 2020)

I stayed at a the Hampton Inn & Suites hotel just a few steps away from the Equal Justice Initiative, a non-profit organization based in Montgomery that provides legal representation to prisoners who may have been wrongly convicted of crimes, poor prisoners without effective representation, and others who may have been denied a fair trial. EJI is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the U.S., challenging racial and economic injustice, and protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society. (Sept. 8, 2020)

The Selma to Montgomery voting rights protest march is a 54-mile (87 km) National Historic Trail in Alabama. It commemorates and marks the journey of the participants of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches in support of the Voting Rights Act. The follows the historic march by beginning at the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma and crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. As they crossed the bridge, the nonviolent marchers were stopped and beaten by law enforcement officers in what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday” on March 7th, 1965. Outraged protesters from around the country joined the marchers for a subsequent five-day march that began in Selma on March 21st, 1965, this time with state and federal law enforcement protection. (Sept. 10, 2020)

This polished, stainless steel sculpture called “Marching On” celebrates the journey and transformation of the thousands of marchers who made the arduous journey from Selma to Montgomery. Located at a roundabout by Fairview Avenue and Oak Street in Montgomery, this reflective piece honors those who marched past this corner in 1965 to culminate their voting rights protest at the Alabama State Capitol steps. The artists of this polished stainless steel sculpture, dedicated March 6, 2015, are: Jon Cook, Barrett Bailey, Robert Minervini and Chuck Parkinson. (Sept. 10, 2020)

My photo of the “Selma To Montgomery National Historic Trail” photo at the roundabout where the polished, stainless steel sculpture, “Marching On,” is located at the corners of Fairview Avenue and Oak Street in Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Other sites of interest in Montgomery: The Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Home, architecture of downtown Montgomery; Union Station and the Rainbow Soldier; Hank Williams, the Alleyway Tank and the Wright Brothers Park.

The Fitzgerald Home, built around 1910 on Felder Street in Montgomery, Alabama. Fitzgerald worked on his novel ‘Tender Is the Night’ and Zelda began her only novel, ‘Save Me the Waltz.’ The couple, along with their daughter Scottie, lived in the house from Oct. 1931 to April 1932. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Fitzgerald Museum is dedicated to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald in Montgomery. The Fitzgeralds wintered at the Felder Avenue house from the Fall of 1931 until the Spring of 1932. It was the last home they would live in together as a family with their daughter Scottie. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Inside the F. Scott Fitzgerald home that he shared with his Alabama-born wife Zelda and their daughter Scottie from Oct. 1931 to April 1932. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Zelda Fitzgerald’s Paper Doll exhibit at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Home on Felder in Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

A close-up of Zelda Fitzgerald’s Paper Doll exhibit at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Home on Felder in Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The once-empty and dilapidated brick commercial buildings on Dexter Avenue, which were built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and were the endpoint of the 54-mile civil rights protest march from Selma in 1965, are being restored as retail, office and residential spaces. (Sept. 9, 2020)

The Montgomery Union Station, built in 1898 by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad provided rail service to the station until 1979. The Montgomery Area Visitor Center and commercial tenants are housed here but the Visitor Center was closed due to the coronavirus. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.
(Sept. 8, 2020)

The Alleyway Tank, a historic water tank landmark at the Lower Commerce entrance to The Alley, a restaurant and art district in Montgomery’s revitalized downtown. (Sept. 9, 2020)

Wright Brothers Park is a small urban park right off of a freeway in Montgomery with a full-scale replica of the Wright Flyer. “In the spring of 1910, aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright opened the nation’s first civilian flying school on an old cotton plantation on the outskirts of Montgomery. The flying school was short-lived, however, as mechanical and weather-related problems forced the brothers to close the facility earlier than planned. The location was later used for aircraft repair during World War I and on November 8, 1922, the installation became Maxwell Field, which would evolve into what is now Maxwell Air Force Base,” according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. The park was renamed from Overlook Park to Wright Brothers Park on July 2, 2013, in dedication to the Wright Brothers. (Sept. 11, 2020)

Selma

Its more than 80 years old and it’s named after a former Confederate brigadier general, U.S. senator, and leader of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, but the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, is a symbol of voting rights, a symbol of the struggle to fight racial injustice and ultimately a symbol of freedom. Walking across the bridge was my symbolic connection to past racial injustices that are still alive and present in today’s America. Why is it so difficult for us to accept one another as human beings breath inking, walking, taking, shedding blood and dying on this earth as one?

A voting registration campaign in 1965 turned tragic Feb. 1 when an Alabama state trooper fatally shot Jimmie Lee Jackson in Marion. It prompted the voting rights protest march from Selma to Montgomery.

On March 7, 1965, when then-25-year-old activist John Lewis led more than 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama and faced brutal attacks by oncoming state troopers who used tear gas and night sticks on the peaceful protestors. Media footage of the violence shocked the nation and galvanized the fight against racial injustice.

The voting rights protest march triggered a milestone event in the Civil Rights Movement because it eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson aimed at overcoming legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote as guaranteed under the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Although several places I had hoped to enter for a visit were closed due to the coronavirus, the Edmund Pettus Bridge was open for the walking. So I walked across the bridge in remembrance of the protest marches and in celebration of the life of John Lewis (Feb. 21, 1940 – July 17, 2020) who in 1965, led the first of three peaceful voting rights marches from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and was gased and beaten by state troopers. He survived and was elected to Congress in 1986 where he served 17 terms in the U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Lewis received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom awarded by President Barack Obama in 2011.

Take a walk with me into history along the Edmund Pettus Bridge and downtown Selma.

It turned out to be an overcast morning, which was great for walking across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. It was such an honor for me to be here and fulfilled a desire of mine to pay my respects to those who marched in protest for the right to vote. A right I take very seriously.
The Edmund Pettus Bridge was the site of the Bloody Sunday conflict of March 7, 1965, when police attacked Civil Rights Movement demonstrators with horses, billy clubs, and tear gas as they were attempting to march to the Alabama State Capitol in Montgomery. The marchers crossed the bridge again on March 21 and successfully walked to the Capitol building. The bridge, built in 1940, is named after Edmund Winston Pettus, a lawyer, judge, Confederate brigadier general, state-level leader (“Grand Dragon”) of the Alabama Ku Klux Klan, and U.S. senator. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The “Welcome to Historic Selma,” sign at the edge of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on the way over the bridge into downtown Selma. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The central span of the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River in Selma. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Along Water Street at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma is this “Song of Selma” park. Created by the City of Selma from a vacant lot, the park’s name came from the book “The Poems of Ossian” containing the poem “Songs of Selma” from which Selma was named. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The ‘Bloody Sunday’ attack by state troopers on peaceful protesters took place in 1965 along the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Civil Rights Memorial Park, at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, prior to crossing it into Selma, Alabama. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Civil Rights Memorial Park by the entrance of the Edmund Pettus Bridge into Selma. According to the historical marker: “The bloodshed on this bridge named to honor Klan Leader, Edmund Pettus, must fuel our resolve to secure the right to vote in perpetuity. This park was designed and downed by Hand and Rose Sanders to honor their parents, Rev. D.A. And Ora Lee Gaines and Sam and Ola Mae Sanders, who represent the thousands of African Americans whose work and faith form the pillars of the Civil Rights Movement.” (Sept. 10, 2020)

On March 7, 1965, as non-violent marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge on a peaceful voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., they were tear-gassed, beaten and their procession was stopped by law enforcement officers. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Entering the city of Selma, Alabama, from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, onto Broad Street. (Sept. 10, 2020)

A view of the Alabama River from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Edmund Pettus Bridge was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2013. The plaque on the bridge reads: “This site possesses national significance for its association with ‘Bloody Sunday,’ a seminal event in the Civil Rights Movement. Here, on March 7, 1965, law enforcement officers violently attacked peaceful marchers, media coverage of the confrontation raised public awareness of the need for voting rights legislation and resulted in a national outcry that pressured Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.” (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Selma Times-Journal along Water Avenue in Selma is housed in an Italianate Victorian storefront building typical of the early 1870s. This newspaper has been published continually since 1828. Earlier uses of this building include a wholesale grocery business and an agricultural implement business. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Selma Interpretive Center (at the corner to the right on Broad and Water Streets) operated by the National Park Service can be seen at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Unfortunately, it was not open yet due to the coronavirus. However, this former 3-story bank building in the Italianate style was originally built in 1870. (Sept. 10, 2020)

With the Visitor’s Center to the left, which was closed due to the Coronavirus, with a view of the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Broad Street in Selma, Alabama. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past mural by Sheila Ferrell on the side of the Visitor’s Center on Broad Street in Selma. The Sojourn to the Past in the Youngstown, Ohio area is a hands on experience that brings high school students to the South to experience the Civil Rights Movement by visiting the Civil Rights sites, meeting leaders of the Movement and learning the lessons of the Movement such as justice, nonviolence, civic responsibility, hope compassion, tolerance and not being a silent witness. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Racist segregationists beat and killed white Boston minister James Reeb on March 11 and members of the Ku Klux Klan shot and killed Detroit housewife Viola Gregg Liuzzo on March 15, 1965. Both of whom participated in the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march. The legacy of Reeb and Liuzzo are remembered in the Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past mural by Sheila Ferrell on the side of the Visitor’s Center on Broad Street in Selma. (Sept. 10, 2020)

On March 7, 1965, Hosea Williams and John Lewis led a group of 600 African Americans protest marchers from Brown Chapel AME Church, six blocks and across from the Edmund Pettus Bridge, when armed troopers were orders to attack the marchers, ultimately hospitalizing 50 of them during what came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.” The peaceful protest march was to raise public awareness of the need for voting rights legislation. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Downtown Selma, Alabama, along Broad Street. The majority of Selma’s commercial downtown consists of two story buildings with Italianate details built mainly by Selma’s prominent Jewish retail population prior to the turn-of-the century. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Downtown Selma, Alabama, along Broad Street. (Sept. 10, 2020)

The Edmund Pettus Bridge as seen on Broad Street in Selma, Alabama, as I make my way back to Montgomery. (Sept. 10, 2020)

Birmingham

After I left Montgomery, I had just one more stop to make in Alabama and that was Birmingham. I did not spend the night because the places I wanted to see were pretty much clustered together. And, also because the places I wanted to see inside of, like the 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, were both closed, again due to the coronavirus.

Here’s a quick peek at Birmingham.

One of four corner entrances to the Kelly Ingram Park, formerly West Park, a 4-acre park in Birmingham, Alabama is this carving of the “Kneeling Ministers. The park is bounded by 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The park, just outside the doors of the 16th Street Baptist Church, served as a central staging ground for large-scale demonstrations during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. (Sept. 11, 2020)

A close-up of the “Kneeling Ministers” a limestone sculpture by Raymond Kaskey at the southeast entrance of the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham depicting John Thomas Porter, Nelson H. Smith, and A. D. King kneeling in prayer. The clergy played a central role in the planning and leadership of Birmingham’s fight against segregation and racism. The “Kneeling Ministers,” is a carved Alabama limestone sculpture by Washington, D.C., artist Raymond Kasky. It represents passive resistance embraced by church leaders. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The “Freedom Walk” is a self-guided walking trail through the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham with sculpture highlighting actual civil rights events on the very streets that are a part of the trail. (Sept. 11, 2020)

Dedicated to the “Foot Soldiers” of the Birmingham Civil Rights Movement at the Kelly Ingram Park who endured violence while peacefully protesting segregation and racial injustices. When notoriously racist police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor sicced dogs on the “Foot Soldiers” of the movement, civil rights leaders hoped it would shine a national spotlight on their plight, but the country, at large, continued to remain woefully ignorant.
“With gallantry, courage and great bravery, they faced the violence of attack dogs, high powered water hoses and bombings. They were the fodder in the advance against injustice, warriors of a just cause; they represent humanity unshaken in their firm belief in their nation’s commitment to liberty and justice for all,” said Richard Arrington Jr., Mayor of Birmingham, May 1995, as inscribed on the sculpture. (Sept. 11, 2020)

This sculpture at the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham shows two children bracing themselves against a wall while two water cannons stand a few feet away and aiming at them. Mature trees were preserved because of their historic significance: protesters had clung to them for protection from the high-powered fire hoses. (Sept. 11, 2020)

These monuments at the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham honors four of Birmingham’s distinguished African-Americans: Pauline Fletcher, Alabama’s first black registered nurse; Carrie Tuggle, educator and co-founder of the Jefferson County Juvenile and Domestic Court; Dr. Ruth Jackson, a cosmetologist who founded Poro’s Beauty School and Julius Ellsberg, the first from Alabama killed in World War II. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth invited Dr. King to Birmingham in 1962. The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, a Birmingham minister and civil rights activist who led the fight against segregation and other forms of racism, invited Dr. King to Birmingham in 1962. He saw potential in the then young minister and their combined efforts were instrumental in Birmingham’s desegregation. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The “Four Spirits” sculpture was unveiled at Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham on September 2013 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing. Crafted in Berkeley, California by Birmingham-born sculptor Elizabeth MacQueen, the sculptures were designed as a memorial to the four girls killed in a bombing that occurred Sept. 15, 1963. It depicts the four girls in preparation for the church sermon at the 16th Street Baptist Church in the moments immediately before the explosion.
The youngest girl killed in the explosion (Carol Denise McNair) is depicted releasing six doves into the air as she stands tiptoed and barefoot on a bench as another barefoot girl (Addie Mae Collins) is depicted kneeling upon the bench, affixing a dress sash to McNair. A third girl (Cynthia Wesley) is depicted sitting upon the bench alongside McNair and Collins with a book in her lap. The book depicts the refrain of William Butler Yeats poem “The Stolen Child”. And, the fourth girl (Carole Robertson) is depicted standing and smiling as she motions the other three girls to attend church. (Sept. 11, 2020)

At the corner of the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, just across the street from the 16th Street Baptist Church is this the “Four Spirits” bronze and steel sculpture. On Sept. 15, 1963, a dynamite blast ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Church killing four little girls. Over the next three decades, three Ku Klux Klansmen were convicted of the murders and sentenced to life in prison. This sculpture pays tribute to those little girls killed in the racially-charged crimes. Two boys, although not a part of the sculpture, were also killed on the same day. Their names and photos are pictured along the front of the bench.
The next day, then President John F. Kennedy Jr. responded to the tragedy by saying: “If these cruel and tragic events can only awaken that city and state – if they can only awaken this entire nation to a realization of the folly of racial injustice and hatred and violence, then it is not too late for all concerned to unite in steps toward peaceful progress before more lives are lost.” (Sept. 11, 2020)

The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham was organized as the First Colored Baptist Church in 1873. The present building, by the prominent black architect Wallace Rayfield, was constructed 1909-1911 of a Romanesque and Byzantine design.
In 1963, the church was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members and four young girls, in the midst of the Civil Rights Movement, were killed. The church is still in operation and is a central landmark in the Birmingham Civil Rights District. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 2006 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2008. The church has hosted prominent visitors throughout its history. W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary McLeod Bethune, Paul Robeson and Ralph Bunche all spoke at the church during the first part of the 20th century. (Sept. 11, 2020)

A granite historical marker at the corner of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham sating the church was erected in 1909. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, which unfortunately was closed while I was there, is a museum and research center depicting the Civil Rights Movement struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The Reverent Fred Shuttlesworth statue outside the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. According to accounts: No one did more to bring about positive change in Birmingham than the Rev. Shuttlesworth. In his struggle for equal rights, he survived a series of assaults, including the bombing of his home and a brutal armed beating by the Ku Klux Klan. In spite of it all, he was instrumental in victory for Civil Rights causes in Birmingham. (Sept. 11, 2020)

These Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail signs wind through downtown, marking significant locations along the 1963 Civil Rights march routes. These signs, by the Kelly Ingram Park, are all designed as self-guided tours pointing visitors along this historic pathway by maps at each location. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The Alabama Theater, which was constructed to showcase the silent films of the era with staging for live performance, was built along 3rd Avenue in 1927 in downtown Birmingham (Sept. 11, 2020)

The Alabama Walk of Fame, along the 3rd Avenue sidewalk in front of the Alabama Theater, was created to honor famous Alabamians and is similar in downtown Birmingham. Truman Capote (1924-1984) was an American novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Although he was born in New Orleans, his parents divorced at the age of four and he ended up being sent to Monroeville, Alabama, where he was raised by his mother’s relatives. His works, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood,” have been adapted into more than 20 films and television dramas.
In Monroeville, Capote was a neighbor and friend of Harper Lee, who would also go on to become an acclaimed author and a lifelong friend of Capote’s. (Sept. 11, 2020)

The Alabama Walk of Fame, along the 3rd Avenue sidewalk in front of the Alabama Theater in downtown Birmingham, was created to honor famous Alabamians. Harper Lee (1926-2016) was an American novelist, who was born and died in Monroeville, Alabama, and who is best known for her 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” It won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and has become a classic of modern American literature.
Lee and Truman Capote knew each other and grew up together as children. She helped him to research his best-known work, “In Cold Blood.” (Sept. 11, 2020)

This Theatre District mural in downtown Birmingham at 3rd Avenue North and 19th Street is by local Birmingham artist Andy Jordan in collaboration with Blank Space Mural Project to create this piece of art celebrating Birmingham’s art and music world. (Sept. 11, 2020)

Close-up of the mural in downtown Birmingham by local artist Andy Jordan celebrating Birmingham’s art and music world. (Sept. 11, 2020)

A Birmingham bench in downtown Birmingham, Alabama. (Sept. 11, 2020)

UNFORGOTTEN mural by Birmingham artist Tyra Robinson was created to preserve the memories of innocent lives unjustly taken and forgotten over time. In total there are three murals. These two are of Sandra Bland (left) and Jordan Edwards (right). A third mural is of Philando Castile.
“On June 9th, Sandra Bland, a social media activist, was optimistic about her new job prospect at Prairie View A&M University in Texas, her alma mater. On June 10th, she was arrested for what started as a minor traffic signal violation. On July 13th, Sandra Bland was found hanging in her cell at Waller County Jail.”
“Jordan Edwards was a 15-year-old straight-A student who played football at Mesquite High School in Dallas, Texas. He was shot in the back of the head by Dallas officer Roy Oliver, who fired multiple shots and reportedly “flipped off” Edwards and his brothers as they were leaving a house party. Although Oliver claimed that the car aggressively drove towards him, police footage showed them driving away from the officer.”
(Sept. 11, 2020)

This mural by Vincent Rizzo decorates a downtown Birmingham street and ends my stay in Alabama. (Sept. 11, 2020)

5Comments

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1

deb mahoney on September 29, 2020 at 1:33 pm

EXCELLENT! the monuments and statues are amazing.. thanks for sharing, girl.
- 2
  
  Diana Petterson on October 4, 2020 at 11:54 am
  
  Thanks so much Deb!
3

Livy S on October 4, 2020 at 11:34 am

Thanks for sharing your tour of Civil Rights in Alabama, especially the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. The statues of the chained African is powerful and haunting – it visually captures the horrors of Africans being enslaved to satisfy the economic growth of the Americas.
4

Bill and Holly on June 20, 2021 at 4:56 pm

To Diana Petterson from Bill K and Holly K in South Carolina. So glad your travels have been so informative since retiring. We too found Helen Inman a brilliant guide and now she is married to a talented painter of Moroccan culture and has a handsome little boy. She and Rachid also have a home in Canoa Quebrada, Brazil. Helen has come a long way since 2008 when we traveled with her. I hope you and yours are doing well and will again remind Helenita 10@hotmail.com how much you enjoyed her guidance.
- 5
  
  Diana Petterson on June 21, 2021 at 10:25 am
  
  Hello Bill and Holly! And, yes, I’ve thoroughly been enjoying my travels since I retired except of course during the Covid-19 pandemic, like so many others. Although I’m not sure why you’re mentioning Helen in this piece about Alabama, I definitely remember Helen and appreciated her as my Rick Steves tour guide for the Spain through Morocco trip I took 11 years ago in 2010.