Here is a picture of the 16th Street Baptist Church which was bombed in 1963 and killed four girls-2 boys were also killed that day, one by a straight A student and Eagle Scout, the other by a police officer. The church was open until 3pm but I didn't know it so missed seeing inside.
This is a close up of one of the girls who liked to read with a book on her lap.
We arrived 30 minutes before the BCRI opened, so I went over to Kelly Ingram Park named for the first guy who died from Birmingham in WWI. This was ground zero for the civil rights movement and also the site of those awful images everyone remembers from television in 1963 Palm Sunday with a march led by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, and Rev. Martin Luther King. Images of Bull Conner and the Birmingham Police Department Dogs and firemen spraying water on the 2000 marchers assembled to peacefully protests the oppression of the strictly segregated society that was entrenched in Birmingham. It was the most segregated city in the south. The BCRI has windows on the second floor that over look this park.
The park had several information signs (1-6) you could call 204-307-5455 and get information about the event. There were several sculptures commemorating this horrible day:
Fire Hoses spraying kids against a wall
Birmingham Police Dogs jumping out with snarling teeth
A jail with two children saying "Segregation is a Sin"
A policeman with a dog threatening a boy
The three ministers kneeling:
The protests in Birmingham were organized by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) which was organized immediately after the state of Alabama outlawed the operation of the NAACP in Alabama June 1, 1956. The ACMHR was led by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth. Five times, (more than any other single individual in American History) Rev. Shuttlesworth had been an appellant in the United States Supreme Court, in his fight for desegregation in Birmingham. In 2001, President Clinton awarded him the Presidential Citizen's Medal, and in 2008 the airport, where he had been arrested for trying to use the airport restaurant and limo service, was renamed the Birmingham-Shuttelsworth International Airport. I was told by one of the staff that he is buried in the Jewish Cemetery in town.
At the park started a couple walking trails - These had signs with information and you progressed down the streets. I walked the March to Government which led me several blocks to the public library. I was really proud of my profession to learn that when African American students from Miles College had entered the segregated library and staged a sit in, that the library board held an emergency special board meeting that same day and voted to desegregate the library 36 years to the day that it first opened.
From there I took another March to Education which took me to the Phillips School where Reverand Fred Shuttlesworth tried to enroll his two girls in 1957 and was beaten by Ku Klux Klan. His home and church were bombed several times during this struggle.
Cost of BCRI was $12 for the day. One of the volunteers taught school for BPS for 31 years. She said her first year was 1971 and she had 18 white kids and 2 black kids in her classroom. She said it took some time but this was the first time she had spent around white people and she was pretty sure that it was the first time they had spent time with black people but their parents knew that she was wanting the best for the children and their education. Her mother to this day has not been to the BCRI because she said "She lived through it - and didn't want to see it again." Her husband was one of the first black firemen. She said they put broken glass in his boots and a noose in his locker. But now, looking back, he loved his career and would do it again.
We left Birmingham and headed to the Muscle Shoals area were we ate supper at Ricitoni's Italian Grill and stayed at the Comfort Inn in Florence. I talked to Cousin Don who is in Huntsville and we may rendezvous tomorrow.
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