January 5-12, 2022

MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

“Montgomery is the capital city of Alabama. The black granite Civil Rights Memorial and adjacent exhibition center commemorate the Civil Rights Movement. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, a hub for the Montgomery bus boycott. Close by is the domed, 1850s Alabama State Capitol. East of downtown, the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts displays porcelain and American and African art.” ― Google

If you would have asked me a month ago to tell you something about Montgomery about all I could have told you was that it is in Alabama. I’m not sure I would have even been able to tell you it’s the state’s capital. I came here for three reasons: I’m following the Gulf Coast, therefore from Florida one has to travel through Alabama; my research of things to see in Alabama listed several things in Montgomery; and I thought it would be far enough south that I wouldn’t have to worry about freezing tempuratures. I guess I need to do more research about tempuratures as it got down to freezing almost every night though the day time temperatures in the 50s and 60s weren’t too bad.

My visit to the city started with the Museum of Fine Arts and the Zoo, two of my go-to sites to visit in a new city. The city should be very proud of both of these sites. I ended my visit to the city with a stop at the Hank Williams Museum and his Memorial, sites that a true country music fan would love. All of my other visits were seemingly related, but also all unique.

Montgomery has a huge history with slavery. At one time it was one of the largest slave trading cities in the country. In 1834, the state legislature passed a law making it illegal for a Black person to be freed in the state and authorized re-enslavement of any free Black person who entered the state. It then makes sense to me that it was in the Alabama State Capitol that the Confederate States of America were formed in 1861. Jefferson Davis was sworn in at the CSA President on the steps of the Capitol. Fast-forward to 1955, when Rosa Parks, and African-American activist was arrested for refusing to give up her seat on a public bus to white people. The resulting Montgomery Bus Boycott, which lasted over a year and put Martin Luther King, Jr. in the spotlight, is considered to be the start of the Civil Rights Movement in America. Now move to 1961, where a group of young, White and Black civil rights activists were met with violence when their bus came to Montgomery. And then in 1965, a crowd of 25,000 gathered at the State Capitol after completing a five-day march from Selma to Montgomery to call attention to voting rights for Blacks. So, Montgomery has played a huge role in the American Civil Rights Movement.

It is fitting then that Montgomery is home to The Legacy Museum, a museum that displays the history of slavery and racism in America, and its companion, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, or as it is also called the Lynching Memorial.

The six days I spent in Montgomery were thought-provoking, sometime gut-wrenching, but in the end, enjoyable. There were some sites it the city that were not open due to COVID, a couple I stopped and took pictures of the exterior, others will have to be visited if I ever return.