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The class at the National Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala. | 
Remembering those killed in the fight for civil rights, athe |
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Ilya Rusinov:
In what was easily the most effective and provocative of all the official
civil rights "sights" we saw on the trip, today we visited the Civil Rights
museum in Birmingham, Alabama. My expectations were not exceptionally high,
especially since the museum in Tennessee was extremely disappointing, and
the ones in Selma didn't even seem finished. With that in mind, I was
completely blown away by the structure, poignancy and visceral strength of
the Birmingham museum. It was done in a very intricate chronology, first of
all, which highlighted the movement from the early days of Black employment
in the South, to Jim Crow segregation, to the movement itself (having walls
dedicated to separate decades), and even to the afterthoughts of what
modern day civil rights is still all about. The exhibits were both
informational and well as very good in terms of their sensory capacities;
it was experiencing, in a sense, what life under segregation was about at a
certain point in the early 20th century. There were also powerful videos
that were shown, one which started off the tour talking about the formation
of Jim Crow segregation (and African American employment) and one near the
end of Dr. King's March on Washington speech. The museum has been one of
the highlights of this trip thus far, and that is saying a lot. Following
the museum itself, we got to experience a walk in proximity, a walk that
included in its route the 16th Street Baptist Church, where four young
girls were killed when a bomb went off in the early 1960's. It was a very
powerful experience walking past the church and realizing the type of
horrific violence that did, in fact, go on in Birmingham and, in a sense,
defined a lot of what the state of Alabama has become known for when
looking at it as a reference point to studying about the civil rights
movement. In any sense, finishing Alabama really drove home the point of
the type of violence faced by movement activists, and the strength it took
to keep them moving forward.
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At the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church |
Rachel Katz:
When we got to Birmingham we went to the Civil Rights Museum, and it was amazing. The museum was set up in a way that kept you interested throughout the tour. As a screen lifted up after a movie in the beginning you were taken into a different world with replicas, videos, sound bites and other important and historical objects. I liked certain visuals about it, like how after they discussed the 16th St. Baptist Church you could see it out a large window and imagine what it was like. Additionally, the end was much more hopeful than the first, the last room was filled with stations dedicated to freedom rights of today such as women's rights, freedom of speech, gay rights. The other museum (at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis) ended with MLK's death and no hope, this one was shown that things can still be changed today. It gives you hope that the tactics used in previous times could still be used today. It showed me that there is a reason I am studying the Civil Rights Movement. I am here to learn what worked so I can fight for the issues that are important to me today.
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Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
- Montgomery, Ala. | 
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church - Birmingham, Ala. | 
Memorial in Kelly Ingram Park
-Birmingham, Ala. |
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