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Saturday, Friday February 23
Get On
the Bus 2002: Day 2
We met Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth in Cincinnati
Drive from Cincinnati OH, to Memphis, TN - 490 Miles
The second day of Get On the Bus 2002 began with a
meeting with Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Actively organizing
demonstrations and protests in Birmingham, Alabama in the
1950s and 60s, Reverend Shuttlesworth endured the brutal
police tactics of Eugene "Bull" Connor.
Shuttlesworth survived an assasination attempt when his
his home was bombed on December 25, 1956. We will be
adding several journal entries from our group about the
discussion we had with Rev. Shuttlesworth.
Fred Shuttlesworth
The
group talking with Rev. Shuttlesworth.
Get
on the Bus 2002 and Rev. Shuttlesworth.
Jenny
got her Shuttlesworth civil rights playing card
autographed.
Fred
sharing a joke with Joe and Teresa.
An excerpt from Libby Pozolo's journal:
. . .We got
off to any early start this morning with our meeting with
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth at 10:00 a.m. and have been
on the go ever since! Rev. Shuttlesworth was very
interesting and I really enjoyed hearing his experiences
directly from him first-hand. It was amazing meeting with
someone that was such a prominent part of the movement.
He talked about his experiences in Birmingham and his
adversary, Bull Connor. Then after about an hour, we took
some photos with the Reverend and he showed us a room
with many of his awards, plaques, and portraits. Then we
hit the road...
I drove from Cincinnati to Louisville and then we stopped
for a quick lunch. Six hours after that, we finally
reached Memphis. It was a long, tiring drive! However, we
were greeted by a beautiful Marriot hotel and once we
were settled, Joe, Theresa, Regina, Fatima, and I took
the trolley downtown for dinner. I really liked the city
and once the other two vans arrived we went back into
town and walked up and down Beale Street. It was a lot of
fun! But I am completely exhausted right now. Tomorrow
Sarah Leonard and I are going to Mass at St. Mary's,
which is right across the street from our hotel. So good
night! . . .
The
Open Road
Crossing
the Ohio river in Cincinnati.
Kentucky
is a nice state to drive through. Or get lost in (that
means you, white van!)
Alyson
Scott on the white van's adventure:
. . . What started as an intentional detour has gotten us
very, very lost. Steph pointed out that Lincoln's
birthplace was only about 10 miles out of our way and
wouldn't it be a great rest stop??? And it was kind of
in-theme with our trip because Abe did sign the
Emancipation Proclamation and everything…so we got
off the highway at what we thought was the right spot. We
were all shortly thinking, however, "Gee, this ten
minute detour is taking more like 35 minutes…"
But we made it, in due time. (It turns out if we had
stayed on the freeway for one more exit we would have
taken a more direct route and saved 40 minutes or so. Oh,
well.) We visited Lincoln's birthplace and it was very
pretty with hills, streams, and trees, but it was kind of
anti-climatic as well. Kind of a cabin inside a
faux-Lincoln memorial. We left, and Rosa took over the
wheel while SaS and I settled into the back seat for a
nap.
Sas and I awoke at 5:30 to discover we had been taking
the completely wrong road since leaving Lincoln's
birthplace-travelling west instead of southwest.
Initially we panicked, but then realized if we only went
directly south, we could still make it. And we did, in
head of some of the other vans, in fact. And so began the
legend of The White Van. ...
See
yesterday's entry
See our itinerary
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