"[W]hen you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you . . . then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait." - "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
On this portion of our trip we retraced the steps of black history and the civil rights movement. It is only because of the civil rights movement that we are able to take our current cross country adventure. We began this portion of our trip in Tuskegee, Alabama. We toured the Tuskegee University, the Booker T. Washington & George Washington Carver Museum, and the Tuskegee Airmen Airfield. From Tuskegee we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama where we toured, sat inside, and met the current pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church - the very church where Dr. King was a paster for four years and where the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Alabama Chapter of the NAACP were organized. It is on the end of the same street on which Dexter Avenue Church sits that the march from Selma to Mongomery was culminated, on the steps of the old capital of the confederatcy of Alabama. Our next stop was Birmingham, Alabama and on to the Civil Rights Institute and 16th Sreet Baptist Church. In our opinion, the Civil Rights Institute is one of the best civil rights museums in the country, followed by Memphis' museum and Lorriane Motel, which we will visit in our next post. This is a "must do" in Birmingham. Next stop, Memphis, Tennessee.
Kim in front of the Tuskegee Institute
Us with the Tuskegee Airmen Airfield in back
Inside Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church
Dr. King's home while pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
This home was once bombed during the movement, but no one was hurt.
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
16th Street Baptist Church
In 1963, this church was bombed by members of the KKK, and four young girls were killed.
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