Alabama has a rich history of racism, violence, and oppression. But in the words of the great Frederick Douglass, without a struggle, there can be no progress.
And so Alabama also has a rich history of overcoming impossible hurdles, redemption, strength, and success.
We recently took a road trip through Alabama, our the last state to visit east of the Mississippi. Instead of doing the beaches or other typical touristy things, we decided to do as much of the Alabama Civil Rights Trail that we could.
Our first stop was Selma, Alabama. We parked at the Civil Rights Memorial Park at the Edmund Pettus bridge, which named for a Confederate general and KKK leader. The park honors the civil rights leaders and fighters who were beaten during the Bloody Sunday attacks on the bridge on March 7, 1965. The march over the bridge, led by John Lewis, was to protest voting rights. The brutal attack was broadcast on TV and was a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement (113 years after Frederick Douglass’s famous speech, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July).
It was really hard to see the bridge, which reinforced how important this trip was.
Next we headed to Montgomery, our home for the night. Our first stop was The Legacy Museum, which is part of the legacy sites in Montgomery. The museum displays 400 years of American history, starting with enslavement and ending with mass incarceration—modern-day enslavement. They use art, holograms, and technology to show how Black people have persisted with dignity and strength while America, and much of the world, try to beat them down. It was incredibly emotional. I cried through the entire museum, and I’m crying now thinking out it. Photos and videos aren’t allowed but it’s honestly something everyone needs to see in person. This video from the Equal Justice Initiative, the nonprofit founded by Bryan Stevenson and the creators of the legacy sites, gives a good overview of the museum.
We stopped at the Legacy Plaza, located across the street, to collect our thoughts.
One ticket covers The Legacy Museum, as well as the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. The Legacy Museum takes 3-4 hours and closes at six. Luckily, the tickets can be used for the other sites on subsequent days. It was nearing six, so we decided to walk around Montgomery.
The site where Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat on the city bus has a statue honoring her, so we headed there first. Nearby, Troy University has a Rosa Parks Museum, but it was closed for the night.
We walked by the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was the pastor from 1954-1960, which wasn’t open for visitors.
We walked to the Civil Rights Memorial, with the names of 41 people who were killed in the Civil Rights movement inscribed in the granite.
Because I love bookstores, our next stop was The New South Bookstore. A talk with the esteemed John Lewis biographer was just about to start! Dr. David Greenberg talked about his experiences with John Lewis and what it was like to write a book about such a prominent figure in US, and civil rights, history.
The next morning we walked over to The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It’s part of The Legacy Sites, and they offer a shuttle from The Legacy Museum. The Memorial is a six-acre site, on a hill overlooking Montgomery, with the nation’s first memorial dedicated to victims of racial lynching. The beautiful gardens are a stark contrast to the heartbreak inside the memorial. After going through security, there are a series of large plaques that discuss the history of racial lynchings.
The memorial itself is a series of steel beams hanging from the ceiling, each beam representing a county where over 4,400 victims were lynched. I can only imagine that the juxtaposition of the tranquil setting, with its open air and waterfall, and the heaviness of the grief you feel there is intentional.
There is more art depicting scenes of civil right activism on the walk out.
The tickets also include the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park, but we didn’t have time to stop there.
Our next stop was the Troy University Rosa Parks Museum. They were closing for lunch shortly after we arrived, so we didn’t have much time but we convinced them to let us in.
Before leaving for Birmingham, we drove by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s house.
Our first Birmingham stop was Rickwood Field, America’s oldest baseball park, oldest Negro league park, and first integrated sports team in AL. I don’t care for baseball, but even I recognized many of the names of people who had played there, like Birmingham native Willie Mays.
We were the only people visiting the park, which was very lowkey with their tours. You can just show up and walk around. There were two guys working and we (mostly The Husband) chatted with them for a while, then one took us on a little tour.
After checking into our hotel, we walked around Birmingham. We walked through Kelly Ingram Park and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. The church was the site of a KKK bombing that killed four young girls, and the park has statues honoring them, as well as Dr. Martin Luther Ling, Jr. It was so freaking awful to think about these young girls, minding their own business in the church basement, being killed in a bombing.
Our final stop on our Alabama Civil Rights Trail tour was the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The museum is dedicated to teaching civil and human rights for generations. There are great permanent exhibits, such as the Barriers Gallery, which showed what everyday locations looked like during segregation. There was so much information and I was so engrossed that I barely took any pictures.
There are so many other places we wanted to go but we ran out of time. And it was also so much to learn, and feel. We knew the high-level details but standing at the sites where such disgusting, unnecessary violence occurred was heartbreaking. It was really hard to see a lot of this, and that’s what it was so important.
Other Trip Info:
Montgomery
- Hotel: Embassy Suites-Great location near The Legacy Museum
- Eat: Dinner at Ravello Ristorante- amazing cacio e pepe
Birmingham
- Lunch: Hattie B’s Hot Chicken-always a great meal
- Hotel: Redmont Hotel Birmingham, Curio Collection by Hilton-nice hotel, central location
- Brunch: Yo’ Mama’s- I hate grits but their grits are incredible