Birmingham

Today, was an interesting day for me. After packing up, we went downstairs for breakfast, got on the bus, and listened to part of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" as we came to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. In his speech, Martin Luther King wrote topics such as nonviolent protest and unlawful laws and what constitutes as them.

 We came into the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and watched a short video specifically on he lives of black people in Birmingham. The projector screen rose up revealing the museum inside. The museum was filled with artifacts, old photos, and models of people, such as Rosa Parks. At first I thought the museum was really small, until I realized that there were endless hallways ahead. There was so much information that I wanted to read, but I wasn't able to look through it all due to time constraints. The most striking realization I had there was that the Aunt Jemima company wanted to keep the black woman stereotype of "a happy, overweight, "Mammy" figure." It made me think how twisted it is that we still have Aunt Jemima, and it still exists today. Even though the black woman looks different, it still holds on to the origins of the woman figure of Aunt Jemima.

 After the museum, we went to the 16th Street Baptist Church in the beautiful weather and took a group picture. It's very upsetting and disturbing what happened to the four girls at that church, but it was also an honor to get the chance to be there and be at the place where one of the most famous events of Birmingham took place.
We got back on the bus and drove to lunch, meeting up with Cleopatra Goree, Barbara Mines, and Catherine Burks-Brooks. It was also an honor getting to hear their memories about being a teacher and supporting the Children's March, participating in the Children's March, and about the Freedom Rides. It was also nice to meet Mr. Rivers, a friend of Traci's dad. We ended our time with us holding hands, crossing right over left, singing "We Shall Overcome."

We left and headed toward Selma, watching a video called "Eyes on the Prize", featuring many original video clips during that time, such as Bloody Sunday, and Turn-Around Tuesday. These were also very upsetting, but were important to watch. We arrived in Selma and walked out of the bus into the early night, toward the Brown Chapel African Episcopal Methodist Church, later taking a group picture there as well. This church acted as a hospital for the injured marchers.

We walked toward Edmund Pettus Bridge, and walked in pairs across, singing "We Shall Overcome" once more. When we got to the end of the bridge, we were greeted with murals and monuments of Civil Rights Movement heroes. We then all gathered and group and had reflections of the current moment and the current day. I found the reflections to be really insightful, topics ranging from fear to freedom, and death to peace, and fitting in to enjoying the moment.

We got a late dinner and came to the Super 8 motel. I'm looking forward to having a meaningful day tomorrow and hope I get enough rest.

Nina Feliciano, The Park School