By Kaba Shalita
Day eight started like any other, I woke up about thirty minutes before departure time and prepared for the day. After packing up all my stuff I made my way downstairs skipping breakfast as per usual. Heading towards the bus I see Scotty loading up the luggage with great enthusiasm and say, “Good Morning!” and “Thank you!” Scotty is our conductor and has been responsible for driving us across the country and he’s done a marvelous job doing so. Today was our second day in Montgomery, Alabama and the itinerary was filled with three museums, two stops for food, and the day would end with an hour and a half drive to Birmingham, Alabama.
Our first stop was the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, also known as the legacy museum, which was created by the Equal Justice Initiative. The subtitle of this museum states, “from enslavement to mass incarceration” and this museum does just that, it takes you on a journey from the west African region to the abduction and enslavement of African people through the middle passage, their experiences in North America all the way up to how these things have impacted African Americans today through police violence. Upon entering the museum, they let us know that no pictures or videos are allowed in the museum which was unfortunate because this would become my favorite museum thus far, yet it was understandably something one should experience for themselves not just through photos.
The first few exhibits depicted the horrors of the middle passage. I will now attempt to describe one section in particular that evoked a heart wrenching emotion, depicting a fraction of the pain that was felt by those who suffered and experienced it in reality. It was set to be in the middle of the ocean with low blue lights that emulated being under water. On the sea floor were statues of heads of slaves lost during that transatlantic voyage. Each head with a chain around their neck, some women, some men, some children. All with a painful expression and their mouths open, I could imagine the screams of agony coming from them. This really stuck with me, as I was standing there amidst it all a recurring thought that I’ve been having throughout this trip came back to me: “Had I been born at a different time this would have been me, I would not have a say in my life.”
Another section of the legacy museum that really stuck with me were the exhibits that centered on lynchings across the United States. One exhibit in particular held so much weight to it, this was the exhibit in which the soil from lynching sites had been collected in large jars with the names of the victims engrained into them, some names were unknown. There were over 50 jars from different sites all over the country holding an important part of our history and telling the stories of these victims so that they are not forgotten. This museum had many theaters as well where they showed videos in connection to certain parts of the exhibits. Next to the soil exhibit was one theatre where they were showing a mini documentary where we see one family’s journey as they collected the soil from the site where their grandfather had been lynched. The experience was very emotional for them, and I felt for them as it put a lot into perspective of how recent this all occurred, an important member of their family just two generations prior had been murdered and savagely treated as less than human. I also learned a horrific fact that lynchings were often treated like carnivals in addition to being a public event for the whole town to partake in and watch, there were disgusting practices that turned it into a sick form of entertainment.
Pictures would be captured to be later turned into postcards and souvenirs for spectators. Extremities such as fingers and toes were cut off to be given out as souvenirs. Torture would be elongated with actions such as burning the victim, extinguishing them so that they are still alive, and then burning them again and repeating this cycle for as long as they could.
The museum continued telling our history as African Americans throughout the next century and reached today where black people must face police violence and discrimination based on stereotypes invented by white people. Black people are often criminalized as children and set up for failure. There is hardly any leeway, and this museum provided many stories of prisoners who are facing unjust convictions.
After leaving this museum I had to sit with my thoughts for a while, it was good that I was alone and that the next thing on the itinerary was to walk to the civil rights memorial, so I used this walk to think about how I was feeling. When I arrived at the memorial I noticed how well kept and protected it was, it was evident that at this site much care is put into honoring the history of African Americans in this country. There were lots of sculptures in the memorial a majority of which contained the names, places, and details about lynchings that occurred across the nation. This included one out of the five that occurred in Minnesota, telling the story of the three young African American men who were lynched in Duluth, MN.
Next was lunch at the historical restaurant, Chris’ Hot Dogs. Here I had a hot dog with a burger, and the owner who is the grandson of the man who opened the restaurant gave us some information about the history of the restaurant. Martin Luther King was a frequent customer and many public figures and celebrities had come through those very same doors. This restaurant, opened by a white man, was never segregated and served all of its customers equally.
After lunch we headed to the Rosa Parks Museum where we received in depth information on Rosa Parks upbringing, career/life, and her role as a civil rights activist. I’ve included a picture of a statue and images honoring Rosa Parks at the entrance of the museum. Rosa Parks was a valiant woman, and she was the catalyst to the Montgomery bus boycotts that persisted for a year. This museum is located on Troy University’s campus and another section of the museum contains a time machine. The time machine takes form of a public Montgomery bus from the 60’s and takes occupants on a journey from slavery up to the time right before Rosa Parks was arrested.
After, we went to Civil Rights Memorial Center where we watched a video about the history of the civil rights movement and saw a few exhibits which talked about current issues in the civil rights movement. At the end of these exhibits there was a room in which you could pledge to support civil rights movements and combat civil rights injustices. I readily signed my named and it felt good to see my name appear on the screen with hundreds of others who have done the same.
We all met back up at the bus at 4:30pm and headed to dinner at Martha’s place. I had a piece of fried chicken, a piece of broiled chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, black eyed peas, carrots, and cornbread. This restaurant was buffet style all you can eat which was great! After dinner we headed straight for Birmingham and arrived at the hotel around 8:30pm.
Something I’ve learned throughout the various museums we’ve visited is that each one tells the history of the United States slavery and the civil rights movement in a unique manner that adds layers and dimension to the history providing a more in depth understanding of what occurred. We don’t learn these things in depth while we are in primary and secondary school, furthermore particularly in the North where I’m from educators take a distant stance as though most of these occurrences happened in the South, however, these racial issues were propagated and perpetuated in the North as well, where there were lynchings and Jim Crow laws were enforced.