Woke up this morning with rain in Birmingham, but thankfully it did not put a huge damper on our day.
We headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a museum of the Civil Rights movement with special focus on the events in Birmingham. The students were exceptional, going through the museum, reading the information, and really thinking through the tough realities of the Civil Rights movement. After the museum we went across the street to Kelly Ingram Park, the site of the student march which turned violent with fire hoses and attack dogs turned on the protestors. It is a beautiful park, and was a nice moment for the students to walk around talk and take in the various markers there for the people who marched that day.
We walked across the street to the 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed and lead to the deaths of 4 young girls. This was a very moving time as the girls were the same ages as our students. The church is beautiful and very much the same as that day when it was bomb close to 50 years ago. Our students sat in the pews and walked down to the basement where much of the church had been damaged due to the bomb. There were a lot of thoughts stirred in Birmingham, a lot of moments when students considered our history as a country and the importance of the lives lost.
From there we headed to Tannehill National Park which was a significant spot during the Civil War due to the iron that was produced there and sent to Selma to make ammunition for the South. It was absolutely beautiful there...the students got to see an iron blast furnace and hear about the significance of that very location and it is destruction towards the end of the war. There was also a cute general store there with lots of treats that the students enjoyed.
We loaded the buses and headed to Selma, Alabama the site of the Edmund Pettis Bridge and the event of Bloody Sunday. Our students marched side by side, just like the marchers did in the 1960's over the bridge...it was a piognant moment for many of them to consider the realities of what the marchers believed in.
After Selma we headed to Montgomery. Montgomery was the birthplace of the Confederacy and a major city during the Civil Rights era. We stood on the steps of the capital, looking down Dexter street at the church that was pastored by Martin Luther King Jr., and the site of Rosa Park's historic stand for equality. We walked to the Civil Rights Memorial to see the beautiful memorial remembering those who gave their lives during the movement. It is a breath-taking memorial, one that always leaves an impression on me.
After that we headed to dinner at the Golden Corral which the students enjoyed...lots of food and lots of time to chat and be together.
Tonight when we got to the hotel we gave the students an opportunity to share their thoughts of the trip...I wish I could relay to you all their thoughts, but they were many and left me so proud of our students and their respect for both the Civil War and the Civil Rights movement.
Tomorrow we visit the Rosa Parks Museum and the Dexter Avenue Church and then it is on to Atlanta the last stop on our journey.
It has been amazing.
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