I've been in Alabama for the last couple of days and, while these are just the nicest people and I may go to hell for saying it, the state is full of serious hicks. I know -- I am terrible. Nevertheless it is totally true. My god, get a full set of teeth.
Anyway, I have really enjoyed visiting Montgomery and Birmingham. I was a history major in college, and the Civil War and Civil Rights are two eras that really interest me. I loved both the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery and the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. Years ago I visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and I thought it was a terrible museum. All the exhibits are heavy on text and reading, so I found myself quickly exhausted and bored while surrounded by a subject with which I am fascinated. I have always held that museum in immediate contrast to one I saw a couple of days later, the WMBA museum in Knoxville. Driving around the state, my mother and I coincidentally stayed next door to the WMBA museum. I felt obligated to visit and support the league. (Leola did not.) I don't really care about basketball or the WMBA, but I still thought it was a great museum. It is interactive with all different type of exhibits, on varying topics. There were exhibits about Title 9, sports injuries, college rivalries (with lots about three-peat champions Tennessee Lady Vols) -- the museum ends at a half court with a sign suggesting that one of the young visitors might be the next WNBA star. All of it was very interesting and very well done.
The two Civil Rights museums that I have visited in Alabama had all of these features. For example, the Rosa Parks museum has a mock bus and shows a full reenactment of her arrest on screens in the windows. The civil rights center begins with exhibits about African American life under the Jim Crow laws, showing by example how 'separate' is not 'equal.' We see a typical white classroom side by side with a typical black classroom, we see a pair of drinking fountains; the Infant mortality disparity is represented by crosses, class-size by
textbooks and labor statistics by blue shirts/white shirts. Especially interesting was an display about
black-face minstrels and the subtle prejudiced of Aunt Jemima. They did a great job showing the daily indignities and repression designed to maintain the racial status-quo. Then the museum moves on to the Civil Rights movement, showing a jail cell with audio playing MJK's 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail,' a burned out bus and personal accounts illustrate the experience of the Freedom Riders. Located in historically significant spot, the museum even makes their windows
part of the displays. A sunny view of a park has a display sign reminding us that Bull Connor famously used attack dogs and fire hoses against marchers at this spot. An exhibit about the 2002 trial of the 16th Street Church bombers (when the four young girls were killed) is centered around another picture window, this one looking out at famous church. I was so glad to see that this important part of history was being retold in such an interesting and educational way. I happily spent hours wandering thorough both places.
Oddly another facinating civil rights lesson was given during my tour of the Montgomery Capital building. Standing in front of the portrait of George Wallace my mid-60s black guide told the group that he was a participate of the "Bloody Sunday" march. This was a voting march from Selma to Montgomery. I was told that Governor Wallace had given orders to stop the marches at all costs. According to my guide, Wallace thought that targeting the whites would deny the movement financial backing, so they were the most viciously attacked that day. He said that while walking with interlocked arms with a white woman from Detroit, someone jumped out of the crowd and cut her head off with a machete. "The strange part was that her body kept right on marching for a couple of steps." , What an amazing and terrifying story. The guide continued to talk about Wallace. The man famous for saying, "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," had a change of heart late in life and, when elected to office for third and forth terms during the 1980s, he became an advocate for African Americans. The guide said that he personally had forgiven the Governor for this role in segregation and that he had worked in his administration in the 80's. Then he said that he was one of Wallace's pallbearers. At this point, I started to think my guide might be full of shit. But who knows? It was interesting!
Anyway, I have really enjoyed visiting Montgomery and Birmingham. I was a history major in college, and the Civil War and Civil Rights are two eras that really interest me. I loved both the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery and the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham. Years ago I visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis and I thought it was a terrible museum. All the exhibits are heavy on text and reading, so I found myself quickly exhausted and bored while surrounded by a subject with which I am fascinated. I have always held that museum in immediate contrast to one I saw a couple of days later, the WMBA museum in Knoxville. Driving around the state, my mother and I coincidentally stayed next door to the WMBA museum. I felt obligated to visit and support the league. (Leola did not.) I don't really care about basketball or the WMBA, but I still thought it was a great museum. It is interactive with all different type of exhibits, on varying topics. There were exhibits about Title 9, sports injuries, college rivalries (with lots about three-peat champions Tennessee Lady Vols) -- the museum ends at a half court with a sign suggesting that one of the young visitors might be the next WNBA star. All of it was very interesting and very well done. 
The two Civil Rights museums that I have visited in Alabama had all of these features. For example, the Rosa Parks museum has a mock bus and shows a full reenactment of her arrest on screens in the windows. The civil rights center begins with exhibits about African American life under the Jim Crow laws, showing by example how 'separate' is not 'equal.' We see a typical white classroom side by side with a typical black classroom, we see a pair of drinking fountains; the Infant mortality disparity is represented by crosses, class-size by 
textbooks and labor statistics by blue shirts/white shirts. Especially interesting was an display about black-face minstrels and the subtle prejudiced of Aunt Jemima. They did a great job showing the daily indignities and repression designed to maintain the racial status-quo. Then the museum moves on to the Civil Rights movement, showing a jail cell with audio playing MJK's 'Letter from the Birmingham Jail,' a burned out bus and personal accounts illustrate the experience of the Freedom Riders. Located in historically significant spot, the museum even makes their windows part of the displays. A sunny view of a park has a display sign reminding us that Bull Connor famously used attack dogs and fire hoses against marchers at this spot. An exhibit about the 2002 trial of the 16th Street Church bombers (when the four young girls were killed) is centered around another picture window, this one looking out at famous church. I was so glad to see that this important part of history was being retold in such an interesting and educational way. I happily spent hours wandering thorough both places.
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