The Civil Rights Trail: Montgomery

The final leg of our journey took us to Montgomery, AL. Montgomery is the capital of Alabama. Its history dates back to way before the Civil Rights era, so we tried our best to learn about it all.

Did you know that the Confederacy was born in Montgomery? I didn't. Yes, the leaders of southern states met in the AL Capitol building to form their constitution and secede from the union. Jefferson Davis was the president. Across the street from the Capitol stands the First White House of the Confederacy where Davis and his family lived for a few months in 1861 before the C.S.A. capital was moved to Richmond, VA.

These are the flags of the Confederacy:

Statue of Jefferson Davis on the current Capitol grounds

The room in the capitol where the delegates met to form the Confederate States of America

Now, let's jump back to the 20th century and continue on the Civil Rights Trail!

Montgomery was the site of a famous bus boycott in the 1950s. We visited the Rosa Parks Museum, an excellent museum now dedicated to telling the story of this event and the people involved. Seriously, if you're ever in Montgomery it is worth the price of admission! I'm pretty sure everyone knows the basic story of how Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. But did you know that she wasn't actually sitting in the "whites" section of the bus, and that she legally had the right to remain in her seat, but the driver had her arrested anyway?

We then briefly stopped by the Civil Rights Memorial at the Southern Poverty Law Center. It's a tribute of remembrance to those who lost their lives in the struggle for civil rights.

Our final destination that day was a tour of the capitol building. Our tour guide was in the original march from Selma to Montgomery 50 years ago as a young student, and he joined the commemorative march this year as well. He also helped out with the "Selma" movie and got to eat dinner with Oprah, much to his delight :)

Before heading home on Sunday morning, we visited one more important site, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where we attended their worship service. This is the church where Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor as a young man, before he got involved full time in civil rights campaigns. Compared to the 16th St church in Birmingham, this one was a bit smaller, but there were more visitors. They asked all the visitors to stand up and introduce themselves. Being from Memphis, we were practically locals compared to others from Singapore, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic! The sermon wasn't quite as memorable as 16th St either, but in their defense the speaker was a seminary student, not the regular pastor.

All in all, I give AL two thumbs up! It's a great state to visit with something for everyone - beach lovers, historians, foodies, and lots of other interests that we didn't even explore (like Nascar racing at Talladega).