Montgomery & the Civil Rights Museum

We spent several days going to see relatives and friends in Boone, Asheville and GA.  Bryn and Charlie came to Larry's mother's and Charlie met his great grandma and all his GA relatives, including his two new baby cousins.

Charlie & his Greatgrandma

After dropping Bryn and Charlie off at the Atlanta airport (thanks Uncle Dale & Aunt Carrie), we headed west.  Our first stop was Montgomery, AL to visit the the Civil Rights Museum.  We have always hoped to visit this memorial to the Civil Rights Movement.

Sue at the Civil Rights Museum

Built by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the museum is small and approachable and features an outdoor sculpture designed by Maya Lin, the same woman who designed the Viet Nam memorial in DC. A round, black marble slab about waist high on a flat pedestal is engraved with the names of civil rights martyrs and important events, like the Selma March or the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Water bubbles up from the center, flowing over the engraved inscriptions allowing you to touch them and have the water flow over your hands.

On a marble wall behind the fountain this quote from Martin Luther King:

“Until justice rolls down like waters

 and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

It was sobering to read and hear stories of the men, women, and children who died over the last sixty years.  We were also glad to see that they carried the movement up to the present and had stories of people who have died because of their sexual orientation, ethnicity or status as immigrants here in the States and elsewhere in the world (i.e., Tutsis in Rwanda and women all over the world). Another wonderful quote writ large on one wall:

“Unless you speak up, nothing will change.”