African-American History

There are many ways to write history. Professors do it in books and journals. Parents, teachers and ministers write history in the hearts and minds of the lives they touch. Carpenters write history in wood and engineers in steel. In January, I decided to write history through a journal as I experienced it. Thirty journalists from throughout the nation, including me, went to Alabama for a few days to learn about the civil rights struggle of the 50s and 60s, and see just how far we have come. Our bus ride called “Alabama’s Ride to Freedom Tour,” was sponsored by the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel and Lewis Communications. The purpose was to raise visibility through the media for Alabama civil rights sites as tourist destinations. The bus tour took us to several historic cities. From walking hand in hand over the Edmund Pettus Bridge to meeting Rosa Parks' attorney, Fred Gray, this journey was simply awesome. Meeting the civil rights pioneers and experiencing their living history is something I will never forget. As Americans and especially African Americans, you will find a renewed appreciation for this saga of history and celebrate the freedoms we enjoy today.

Journalists’ Notebook

January 13 – Birmingham

A short plane ride from New Orleans to Birmingham allowed me to reflect on my upcoming journey and set my frame of mind for the trip. Within hours, we would walk through the 16th Street Baptist Church and see the courthouse where Bobby Frank Cherry was tried for murdering four little girls. Dozens of years of emotion surfaced as I anticipated passing through Birmingham's Civil Rights District. Once I arrived in Birmingham, nervousness turned to excitement at the hospitality shown by our hosts of many ethnicities. As Richard Arrington, the former mayor of Birmingham wrote, "We hope we can try to tell our own story. We want to help ourselves and others to understand what happened here, why it happened, and how we overcame the violence through nonviolence and changed the nation."

After a reception at the historic Tutwiler Hotel with local dignitaries, accomplished jazz musicians and other inspirational African Americans, we anxiously awaited our historic ride to freedom through Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery and Tuskegee.

January 14 – Birmingham and Selma

After a country breakfast filled with soul-stirring gospel music, we headed to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Richly detailed exhibits in the Institute revealed slices of Black and white life from the late 1800s to the present. A series of galleries told the story of daily life for African Americans in Alabama and the nation, and how it differed dramatically from the lives we enjoy, and often take for granted today. As collegians, you may be particularly interested in the section devoted to James Meredith’s 1962 admission to the University of Mississippi.

Next to the Civil Rights Institute, the 16^th Street Baptist Church is one of the most famous civil rights landmarks. We walked in the exact location where the four schoolgirls were killed by a bomb in 1963 while changing into their choir robes. The deaths of Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins changed our lives forever.

Selma showcased one of the basic principles many Americans take for granted, the right to vote. Selma’s mayor, James Perkins, and Museum Director Joanne Bland greeted us at the door of the National Voting Rights Museum. In the 1960s, Perkins family could not vote because of the color of their skin. Now as Selma’s first African-American mayor, he served as our escort to the historic St. James Hotel, which overlooks the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Mayor Perkins is one of the reminders of how far our country has come. The keynote speaker at an evening banquet at the St. James Hotel was Rev. F.D. Reese, pastor of the city’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. It was this veteran civil rights leader who initially invited Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to come to Selma to lead the voting rights demonstrations of 1965.

January 15 – Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday – Selma, Montgomery and Tuskegee

The sunrise glistened on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, greeting early risers in Selma. January 15 was after all a special day, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. After a birthday breakfast, we were inspired by a choir on the steps of the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church in Selma. Founded in 1867, the church served as headquarters for African Americans and all freedom riders during the Civil Rights Movement. It was the starting point for the Selma to Montgomery March. From the church, we followed the path of the march and joined arms crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the site of Bloody Sunday. Walking with actual civil rights pioneers, who were beaten and jailed, is a memory I will never forget.

After boarding the bus to Montgomery, our next stop was one of the most important locations in African-American history, the corner of Moulton and Montgomery Streets. It was at this site on December 1, 1955 that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus. Today, this site is the location of the Rosa Parks Library and Museum on the campus of Troy State University-Montgomery. Seeing Rosa Parks’ police records with her fingerprints makes the experience even more real. A bus from the era dramatically tells the story of Rosa Parks and her struggle. It is fitting that this important site be turned into a museum and library to inspire students of all ages. Rosa Parks was able to see this inspirational tribute to her when the museum opened in 2000.

Birthday cake and a choir greeted the weary travelers at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. Dr. King began his leadership in the Civil Rights Movement while serving as minister there. The church is noted as the birthplace of the Movement and serves as an example of the role African-American churches played in social reform. Friends of Dr. King welcomed the group and shared insights into his life. A mural in the church depicts major events in the life of the father of the Civil Rights Movement.

After passing the Civil Rights Memorial and the state capitol, our next stop was Tuskegee University. “Who says Blacks can’t fly,” challenged first lady Eleanor Roosevelt after taking a ride in Charles Alfred Anderson’s two-seater years ago. At Moton Field, we learned Anderson was not only a record-setting aviator, but he was a man with a mission to teach others to fly. In a special test program at Moton Field, he taught the Tuskegee Airmen who flew in World War II. Today, you can see an actual-size, working replica of the airplane and learn more about these African-American heroes.

The Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center showcases artifacts from the civil rights era and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Nearby, Booker T. Washington’s home, The Oaks, has been restored and is operated as a house museum by the National Park Service. At the end of our tour, we met Fred Gray, lawyer, author and inspirer. The attorney for Rosa Parks, Gray wrote one of the best books on civil rights, Bus Ride to Justice.

January 16 – Tour Finale

While Alabama may always be linked with the national consciousness of civil rights, the state has come to embrace it and learn from it. The preservation of these sites, which were so important to the struggle, is testimony to a state and a nation determined to recognize and celebrate those who have made sacrifices to give us the freedoms we have today. I challenge you to take this meaningful and inspiring trip to commemorate those who enabled us to come this far in the struggle for equality. For more information on civil rights tours, call 1-800-ALABAMA or visit http://www.touralabama.org. 

Robert G. Miller is the vice president of iMinorities, Inc., and editor of THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine.