Things to Do in Montgomery
If you read my last blog post on my time in AL it focused on service, but during this trip, we saw a lot of sites as well. Some were exciting and others were filled with heaviness, but if you’re making a trip to Montgomery, Alabama here are a few places to check out!
Visitors to the Dexter Parsonage Museum will experience the actual residence where Dr. King and his young family lived between 1954 and 1960; an Interpretive Center, and the King-Johns Garden for Reflection. In The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church you will see the modest pulpit where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. first preached his message of hope and brotherhood. This church was also a center point of the Montgomery bus boycott. A large mural in the church depicts King’s civil rights crusade from Montgomery to Memphis.
Best known for the 1960s Selma Voting Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches, beginning with “Bloody Sunday” in March 1965 and ending with 25,000 people entering Montgomery at the end of the last march to press for voting rights. This activism generated national attention to social justice and that summer, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed by Congress to authorize federal oversight and enforcement of constitutional rights of all citizens. The butterfly capitol.
Tuskegee University was the first black college to be designated as a Registered National Historic Landmark (April 2, 1966), and the only black college to be designated a National Historic Site (October 26, 1974), a district administered by the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of Interior. Besides the being a beautiful college campus, it also houses the "The Oaks," home of Booker T. Washington; the George Washington Carver Museum, which is named for the distinguished scientist who worked at Tuskegee and preserves the tools and handiwork of Dr. Carver; the Legacy Museum and the Tuskegee Archives, a chief center for information on the challenges, culture, and history of Black Americans since 1896; The Tuskegee Airmen's Plaza, commemorating the historic feats of America's first black pilots, who were trained at Tuskegee University; The Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) Center, and the Center for Continuing Education – a nucleus for continuing adult education. This is not limited to exhibits works from its art collection and interprets, additionally, public health, science, and medicine.
The Tuskegee Airmen (Airmen) sprang from an experiment conducted by the US Army Air Corps (Army Air Forces) to see if Negroes (primarily African-Americans) had the mental and physical capabilities to lead, fly military aircraft, and the courage to fight in a war.
That’s My Dog Jr. is the only teen-run restaurant in the United States. It is the third location of That’s My Dog, joining the original food cart in downtown Montgomery and a full-service restaurant nearby.
Charles Lee started That’s My Dog in 2012. He is also the executive director of That’s My Child, an after-school mentoring program that offers no-cost after-school activities for pre-teens and teens. That’s My Dog Jr. is located on the That’s My Child campus and is staffed by a select group of students. The employees draw paychecks and the remainder of the proceeds go towards the youth programs. The restaurant serves lunch weekdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. When it closes, the teenagers have a safe place to hang out.
“… until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” Dr. King’s famous paraphrase of Amos 5:24 is chiseled into the black granite of the Civil Rights Memorial, a moving tribute to those who died in the civil rights struggle between 1954 and 1968. Created by Vietnam Memorial architect Maya Lin in 1989, the memorial sits adjacent to the Civil Rights Memorial Center, sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Visitors are encouraged to touch the engraved names of the martyrs and reflect on their sacrifices.
The center includes exhibits, educational activities and materials, a theater, and the Wall of Tolerance.
The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration is situated on a site in Montgomery where enslaved people were once warehoused. A block from one of the most prominent slave auction spaces in America, the Legacy Museum is steps away from an Alabama dock and rail station where tens of thousands of black people were trafficked during the 19th century. This was the most difficult, yet the most insightful experience of this trip. It will take about 4 hours to get through it all because you will certainly need breaks from all of the information.
Immediately after you should keep the emotion high and visit The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which opened to the public on April 26, 2018, is the nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved black people, people terrorized by lynching, African Americans humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow, and people of color burdened with contemporary presumptions of guilt and police violence.
In 1961 groups of volunteers made history by challenging the practice of segregated travel through the South. They called themselves Freedom Riders as they crossed racial barriers in depots and onboard buses. The 1961 Freedom Riders did not begin or end their journey in Montgomery, Alabama, but their arrival changed the city and our nation.
Freedom Riders, black and white, male and female, none of them older than 22, stepped off a bus at the Montgomery Greyhound Station on May 20, 1961. They were prepared to meet mob violence with non-violence and courage. They prepared farewell letters and wills. Their goal was to help end racial segregation in public transportation. And they did.