Saturday, October 24, 2020

Day 49: Birmingham

Although I grew up in San Diego, which is about as far south as you can get on the west coast, I have never really visited "the South," with the exception of a short trip to Charleston, South Carolina with my mother many years ago. So my impressions are just that, impressions. There seems to be a different lexicon here that an outsider like me is unable to access, especially on a short trip. 

Given the historical moment that our country is in and the geographical location that Greg and I were in, we decided to seek out historical sites connected to the Civil Rights movement. Our first stop was Birmingham, Alabama. 

We started with The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail. The website explains it better than I can: 

The Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail winds through downtown, marking significant locations along the 1963 Civil Rights march routes. The trail speaks to the valor of both common people and to the spiritual leaders who spearheaded the fight against segregation and other forms of racism.

The trail starts in Kelly Ingram Park. The park is dotted with statuary and monuments which are beautiful and devastating and very, very memorable. The photos below don't really capture the experience. 

                                   

                                                       Martin Luther King 

As you wind your way through the park, you stop at monuments that attempt to capture the terrible cruelty that marked this period in our history. In the metal sculpture below, you walk right through, just inches from the snapping jaws. On a plaque accompanying the sculpture, text and mounted photos show the real life scenes portrayed. 


Below, the metal sculptures portray the jailing of children and the use of water canons.

                          


As you head out of the park, the monument below makes you stop in your tracks. It is incredibly beautiful and haunting. The site of the tragedy, the16th Street Baptist Church,  forms the background in this shot. We stood for a long time, before we noticed the empty shoes. 

On September 15, 1963, a bomb explodes during Sunday morning services in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), Carole Robertson (14) and Carol Denise McNair (11). (from the History Channel website)



 



The heritage trail ended in a second park where, as it luck would have it, voting was going on, giving us a moment of hope for the future as folks lined up, masks in place and socially distanced, to cast their votes. 

After the heritage trail, we took a meandering drive back to the hotel. Birmingham has many beautiful buildings, most of which have an air of being from an earlier time. We found ourselves wanting to stop and take pictures and, because we weren't in a rush to get anywhere, we were able to do that. 




After Birmingham, we took a winding route on local highways lined with dense woods. Occasionally, we'd pull in and out of a tiny town here and there as we made our way toward Selma. While Birmingham felt like a fairly big city with all of the distractions that provides, Selma seemed to be very much a small town --with a powerful history, but not much of a hopeful present for those who live there.




 

 The Edmund Pettus Bridge crosses the Alabama River at Selma. 




It was a sobering experience to cross the bridge and stand where history was made by John Lewis and the other brave people who fought for civil rights.















2 comments:

  1. So great too these images of Birmingham and Selma- Just listened to an engaging podcast where Malcolm gladwell dives into some of this history- you guys should tune in- especially as you are actually there!
    “Revisionist History” is the podcast- second season delves into some of the racial issues that you’re seeing monuments dedicated to....

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  2. So powerful! It is great that you took the time to see such important places in our country’s history.

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Day 126: Kansas City, Missouri to Akron, Ohio; Day 127: Akron to Middlesex, Vermont -- We're home!

Well, it does not seem possible, but we have been home one month now. Sorry for the long delay in getting this post written. Reentry tasks (...