Civil Rights and the Deep South

If you've read much of my blog you will know that I am a self-confessed history geek. Not the dry, boring kind of history with names, dates and events, but the stories of people and how they lived their lives. I'm particularly interested in American history (no surprises there), so part of the appeal of visiting the south was to learn more about slavery and the Civil Right's movement that happened in the region. I find Civil Right's history particularly fascinating as it was so recent, it's hard to believe that racism and prejudice was so violent and extreme only 50 years ago. It's also an inspiring story of people coming together to stand up for what is right.

Memphis

My first stop on the Civil Right's Trail was the National Civil Right's Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The former Lorriane Motel was chosen as the site for this museum as it was the location of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination in 1968.

From the outside visitors can see a wreath on the balcony outside room 306 which marks where King was standing when he was shot. Replica cars of those used by King and his entourage are parked in the lot below.

The museum begins with an exhibit on slavery in America which in itself was very interesting and contained information I'd never heard before.

Continuing on the museum's path you walk through exhibits on the rise of Jim Crow and can read personal accounts from people living under 'Seperate but Equal' laws.

The museum exhibits then start to explore the Civil Right's movement itself and the tactics used to break down segregation. One of my favourite exhibits was an interactive bus which explores the story of Rosa Parks and the bus boycotts. Visitors board a bus from the 1960s and sit up front. This activates a speaker playing the voice of the driver who tells them to move to the back, he gets increasingly aggressive threatening arrest if they do not move down. I think this gives visitors a great idea of what life riding the buses would have been like for African-American's in the late 1950s and 60s, and the bravery it took to resist segregation laws.

A little further along the museum path there's an exhibit about the Greensboro sit-ins. The original lunch counter is used with three-dimensional figures sitting-in and hecklers at their side. Behind them plays a video clip explaining the non-violent direct action used and some hard-hitting footage of conflict in reaction to the protests. The footage of young students demonstrating non-violence while they are being attacked is quite moving.




Next up visitors will see a replica fire-bombed greyhound bus from the Freedom Rides in an exhibit

called 'We are prepared to die'. I hadn't read anything about the freedom rides before this exhibit and I couldn't help feeling scared reading the information as I discovered the fates of the brave students who were trying to integrate facilities at bus terminals in the deep south. They began their journey in Washington DC with a plan to reach New Orleans, the violence they were met with along the way was tremendous but brought world-wide attention to the severity of the situation in the south.This exhibit also highlights the Kennedy administration’s reluctance to step into the conflict during this Cold War period.

The museum continues to explore turning points in the Civil Right's movement including a replica US Supreme courtroom where oral argument was heard in 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education, in which the Court ruled that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional and an exhibit on the voting right's campaign in Selma, which was particularly of interest to me as I planned to visit Selma during my trip.

Visitors will eventually find themselves looking into room 306 of the Lorraine motel which has been preserved from the night King was assassinated. He was in Memphis to give a speech about sanitation workers, and after stepping out on the balcony he was shot and killed by fugitive James Earl Ray. This is another moving exhibit, especially as it seems King did not expect to be alive to see the end of the struggle. From his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop”speech, displayed as part of this exhibit:

“We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop ... And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain,”  “And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”

Across the street the museum continues in the boarding house that James Early Ray was staying in when he shot King. This part of the museum explores how the police identified Ray as the murderer and displays the evidence used in the trial against him. This exhibit is particularly interesting and provides a unique insight into the investigation carried out by the FBI.

The museum ends with the room Ray was staying in. During the investigation, it was determined that Ray had to have stood in the bathtub to shoot King. The room is glass encased, the window left open partway as Ray left it.

This museum is fantastic and I highly recommend it to any visitors to Memphis, even if a museum is not usually you bag the interactive exhibits make this one particularly enjoyable.

Selma

Just before I left the UK for this trip, I watched the film 'Selma' which is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. The film opens with civil right's protester Annie Lee Cooper (portrayed by Oprah Winfrey) attempting to register to vote and being denied by the registrar because she couldn't answer his impossible questions, intentional barriers, designed to prevent black Southerners voting. And so the scene is set, we are in the deep South and racial injustice is rife.

The film is set in 1965 when only 2% of Selma's black population had managed to register to vote, which was particularly low and due in large part to the racist white officials in Alabama and Dallas County at the time. Selma perfectly represented the plight of black voters in the South and so MLK and the SCLC used the town as the focus of a voter registration campaign.

We follow the story of the protesters who decide to march from Selma to the state capital of Montgomery to bring national awareness to the situation. Their first attempt was met with a violent response from state troopers, who attacked them as they passed over the county line on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The national television news captured the unarmed protesters being whipped, clubbed and gassed and the event became known as Bloody Sunday. 

King led a second attempt two days later but turned marchers around when state troopers again blocked the road on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Despite Alabama state officials attempts to prevent the march from going forward, they were ordered to permit it by a U.S. district court judge and so 2,000 people set out on March 21st from Selma protected by US Army troops. After walking 12 hours a day and sleeping in fields along the way, they reached Montgomery on March 25. Nearly 50,000 supporters met the marchers in Montgomery, where they gathered in front of the state capitol to hear King and other speakers address the crowd.

That August, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which guaranteed the right to vote to all African Americans. Specifically, the act banned literacy tests as a requirement for voting and mandated federal oversight of voter registration in areas where tests had previously been used.

I found the film and story to be very moving and decided that I had to visit Selma myself and walk in the footsteps of those brave protesters.

Civil rights activists march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama on March 7 1965

There is not a lot to see or do in Selma these days, the town is very small and almost feels abandoned, but there is a museum at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge which showcases memorabilia honoring the attainment of Voting Rights and participants stories related to the movement.

It is however the starting point of the National Historic Trail to Montgomery which is the same 54 mile route marchers took back in 1964. It's a pretty drive with plenty of places to pull over and take photos.

Montgomery 

Montgomery is the state capital of Alabama and as is the case with many US state capitals there isn't necessarily a lot to 'see and do' there. I wouldn't suggest a stop in Montgomery unless you are interested in civil right's history.

Mural in Montgomery

MLK Mural in Montgomery

10 years prior to the Selma to Montgomery voting rights march the city was the location of another pivotal event in the civil right's movement, when Rosa Park's famously refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white man in 1955. A historical marker now stands in the spot where she got on the bus and Troy University have dedicated a museum to her story and the ensuing activities in the 381 day Montgomery bus boycott.

The museum is excellent and tells the story in an informative and interactive way. I found the struggle to boycott the buses particularly interesting, I hadn't realised how difficult the city made it for African American's to provide alternative transport for themselves by pressurising insurance companies to stop insuring cars used in carpools and and fining black taxi drivers for charging low fares. I also didn't realise how long the struggle was and how dedicated the community had to be to win their fight.

Montgomery also played a prominent role in the domestic slave trade with thousands of slaves being imported into the city by way of railroad and the Alabama River. Every day hundreds of slaves were taken off boats, chained together and paraded up Commerce Street, they were kept in warehouses and traded in Dexter Avenue. The city has erected three historical markers downtown to document the trading that occurred there.

Montgomery's downtown also has a nice entertainment district called The Alley, home to various bar and restaurants. I enjoyed some good old Southern BBQ here at Dreamland.

Another Southern destination for those interested in Civil Right's history would be Birmingham, AL or 'Bombingham' as it was nicknamed at the time due to the violent KKK chapter. I didn't get to Birmingham, but the city also saw major events in the Civil Right's movement.

If you're visiting the South I highly recommend taking some time to explore this era of history. I've always felt that understanding the history helps visitors to appreciate a destination, these events may have occurred 50 years ago but they played an integral role in shaping the South you will visit today.