Today was the day that we experienced the emotions of Civil Rights Activists. We had a tour of Selma with Dianne Harris and her fellow activists. Dianne and her brother both marched on bloody Sunday March 7th on Edmund Pettus Bridge. Dianne shared her experience of hearing screams and smelling tear gas, then grabbing her brothers hand and running. They were determined to get to Brown Chapel Church but they saw an old woman trying to run but she was not able to keep up. They stopped to help her and she managed to run another block and a half but could run no further. They wanted to help because they saw a policeman on horseback riding toward them but the old woman urged them on. Dianne remembers seeing the policeman beat the old woman with his Billy club and then chase after them. On 2 separate occasions Dianne was arrested and spent time in jail. She and her best friend recounted this story and others with emotion which gave us the feel of what activists might have felt in their time. We then headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Here they had the real bell from the 16th St Baptist Church when it was bombed. The bombing killed four children and 2 others were killed on the same day January 15th. We experienced a video and then went on a self guided tour featuring the Freedom Riders, MLK’s famous I Have a Dream speech, the role of churches during the movement, Carver Theatre, Women in the Movement, 4th Avenue Business District, Farm Workers rights and more. We then went to see the 16th St Baptist Church and one of the students presented on it. We then went to Kelly Ingram Park. This park includes monuments dedicated to the Children's Crusade, The Foot Soldiers, MLK, and much more. We also read excerpts from MLK’s Letter from Birmingham jail to the white clergymen who joined together to criticize his movement. In this letter he depicts his reasons for non-violent protest and the reasons for choosing that time to spark the movement. In Selma and Birmingham we learned a lot about the Civil Rights Movement and it was a pleasure to be there.
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Day 3- Selma and Birmingham
by Wil
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Thanks for taking us back in time and place to Selma and Birmingham with your description. It's really hard to imagine how much people had to fight for their basic rights in the past and how we, the present generation, are indebted to them for showing us the way.
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