Our first stop was the Civil Rights Memorial which was created by Maya Lin. She was the same architecture who created the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC. The Memorial is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center and was created to memorialize the lives of 40 people who gave their lives to the Civil Rights Movement. The museum not only focuses on the Civil Rights Movement but also reflects on other examples of Civil Rights violations that are still going on in the world today. At the end of the memorial is a wall of tolerance....if you agree to speak up and stop tolerance you are to write you name on the wall.
The memorial focuses on the years between 1954 and 1968. The memorial was dedicated on November 5, 1989.
The building which houses the Civil Rights Memorial. It is located in Montgomery Alabama.
Five of the people who the memorial is dedicated too. The memorial is dedicated to the following people: Rev. George Lee, Lamar Smith, Emmett Louis Till, John Earl Reece, Willie Edwards Jr., Mack Charles Parker, Hebert Lee, Cpl. Roman Ducksworth Jr., Paul Guihard, William Lewis Moore, Medgar Evers, Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Virgil Lamar Ware, Louis Allen, Rev. Bruce Klunder, Henry Hezwkiah Dee, Charles Eddie Moore, James Earl Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Henry Schwerner, Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn, Jimmie Lee Jackson, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Gregg Liuzzo, Oneal Moore, Willie Wallace Brewster, Jonathan Myrick Daniels, Samuel Leamon Younge Jr., Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, Ben Chester White, Clarence Triggs, Wharlest Jackson, Benjamin Brown, Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., Delano Herman Middleton, Henry Ezekial Smith, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Part of the exhibit is focused on other areas in which civil rights violations occur in the world. There is a hallway full of pictures on both sides of the walls demonstrating where issues occur in the world today.
The wall of tolerance...If your name appears on the wall....it means that you want to see civil right violations end.
Outside of the memorial is a circle with a fountain it. The names that appear around the circle are those forty people whose lives were lost during the Civil Rights Movement because they spoke up for what they believed.
After leaving the memorial we headed over to the Dexter Parsonage Museum. This was the house that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife lived in while he was the minister at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Dr. King was the pastor of the church from 1954-1960.
Information about the house:
- The house was the home to twelve pastors from 1920-1992.
- Two of Kings children were born while they lived at the home (Yolanda King and Martin Luther King III)
- King was 25 years old when he became the pastor of the church
- King lived in Montgomery during the Montgomery Bus Boycott
- King helped to found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference at his dining room table.
- King's house was bombed on January 30, 1956.
No pictures were allowed inside the house....Ms. Edwards only took a few of the outside...
We ended our time in Montgomery with a trip to the Montgomery Zoo. It was a hot day...above 90 degrees...the girls ran around trying to see as many different animals as possible. Ms. Edwards and I decided to go on a train ride around the park and see a select few animals...Below are pictures that the girls took.
Here is a picture of the train that Ms. Edwards and I went on. It was an ok ride. We didn't get to see as many animals from the train as we would have liked to. We did have the chance to meet a friendly peacock and her child. They were walking around the food area looking for whatever was available....I have never seen so many birds freely walking around a zoo before.
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