March 7, 1965 a group of people peacefully walked across a bridge and were met by clubs and gas. Their refusal to succumb to the the evil they met managed to profoundly change our country. While that day the marchers were forced back, on March 21 they began again from Selma Alabama and reached Montgomery on March 25th. This was a pivotal moment in the struggle for civil rights.
The memorial 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"
The memorial is quite powerful. While it touches on many aspects of the African American experience, it focuses heavily on the acts of domestic terrorism against African Americans.
The states and counties where people were murdered (lynched) are represented by large metal boxes. The people's names and the dates of the murders cut in the steel.
Interspersed among the memorials are several powerful sculptures that capture the horror of the atrocities experienced by these people.
The memorial garden continues cataloging the acts of violence with rows of memorials arranged by state and county (Parish). I think it drives home the point that these activities were neither rare nor isolated to certain locations.
One particular sculpture captured the contribution of the men and women who literally walked for freedom. It commemorated the bus strike that began in 1955 and lasted just over a year. Those early footsteps paved the way for future progress.
After the memorial we drove to Selma to walk on the bridge. I have seen it in countless pictures. There is a sense of history standing there looking down the highway. Today was a beautiful sunny day. I can't imagine what it was like to crest the rise and see a mob of people with clubs, some mounted on horseback about to attack.
After soaking in the history we drove through Selma and stopped for a bite at the "Coffee Shoppe" in Selma. CC had found it and little did we know we would get a bonus history lesson. We arrived and ordered lunch. Most of the tables had been reserved for a tour group of Harvard Alumnus so we ate at the side bar.
We were quietly eating when they arrived. The Shoppe's owner, Jackie Smith, came out and spoke for a bit. She had grown up in Selma, been the first to graduate college in her family at 42 and after retiring from city government had opened the restaurant. She was quite hopeful. She noted that the place was originally a diner where African Americans could not enter. They could only buy food through a back window. Now she was the owner.
It has become locally famous and now people of note drop by for her food and a photo op or two. Among the names mentioned were David Letterman and a few weeks ago, Elizabeth Warren.
The drive back was down the same highway where the marchers traveled 64 years ago. There are markers showing the camping sites along the routes as the people journeyed 54 miles to demand that they be treated as human beings.
The National Park service has an Interpretive center just short of campsite 2. We stopped by and watched an excellent movie about the march and looked at many artifacts from the period. Then it was down the highway to return home.
The flight home was uneventful. The plane was happy to wait for us at Montgomery airport. We had taxied in past all 4 gates. While I did see a flight arriving after we came, I never did see a plane at a gate.
I have been wanting to visit Selma and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice but the weather had not been cooperating. Yesterday when I noticed that we would have blue skies, I arranged a rental car and filed some flight plans. Logistically we flipped the order a bit. Arriving in Montgomery, we drove to the memorial first.
The memorial 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"
The memorial is quite powerful. While it touches on many aspects of the African American experience, it focuses heavily on the acts of domestic terrorism against African Americans.
The states and counties where people were murdered (lynched) are represented by large metal boxes. The people's names and the dates of the murders cut in the steel.
Interspersed among the memorials are several powerful sculptures that capture the horror of the atrocities experienced by these people.
The memorial garden continues cataloging the acts of violence with rows of memorials arranged by state and county (Parish). I think it drives home the point that these activities were neither rare nor isolated to certain locations.
One particular sculpture captured the contribution of the men and women who literally walked for freedom. It commemorated the bus strike that began in 1955 and lasted just over a year. Those early footsteps paved the way for future progress.
After the memorial we drove to Selma to walk on the bridge. I have seen it in countless pictures. There is a sense of history standing there looking down the highway. Today was a beautiful sunny day. I can't imagine what it was like to crest the rise and see a mob of people with clubs, some mounted on horseback about to attack.
After soaking in the history we drove through Selma and stopped for a bite at the "Coffee Shoppe" in Selma. CC had found it and little did we know we would get a bonus history lesson. We arrived and ordered lunch. Most of the tables had been reserved for a tour group of Harvard Alumnus so we ate at the side bar.
We were quietly eating when they arrived. The Shoppe's owner, Jackie Smith, came out and spoke for a bit. She had grown up in Selma, been the first to graduate college in her family at 42 and after retiring from city government had opened the restaurant. She was quite hopeful. She noted that the place was originally a diner where African Americans could not enter. They could only buy food through a back window. Now she was the owner.
It has become locally famous and now people of note drop by for her food and a photo op or two. Among the names mentioned were David Letterman and a few weeks ago, Elizabeth Warren.
The drive back was down the same highway where the marchers traveled 64 years ago. There are markers showing the camping sites along the routes as the people journeyed 54 miles to demand that they be treated as human beings.
The National Park service has an Interpretive center just short of campsite 2. We stopped by and watched an excellent movie about the march and looked at many artifacts from the period. Then it was down the highway to return home.
The flight home was uneventful. The plane was happy to wait for us at Montgomery airport. We had taxied in past all 4 gates. While I did see a flight arriving after we came, I never did see a plane at a gate.
No comments:
Post a Comment