A morning walk in the park
Stacy Baynes:
This morning I was feeling rushed and hadn't checked on our agenda for the day. I knew we were going to visit sites in Birmingham and go to their civil rights center, but that was about it. So when the bus stopped, I didn't realize exactly where we were. We were early and could walk through the park a few minutes before gathering in front of the Institute. At that point, I didn't even realize the park was part of our agenda. But always a fan of a walk in the park, I started walking through.I saw a tunnel of sorts off to my left and headed that way. But it seemed the people ahead of me were all taking pictures of the other side, essentially of the people walking through the tunnel, heading away from me. So I stayed in the middle of the park, walking past to see what was on the other side drawing their attention. That is when I saw what it was — statues of large hoses aimed at two children cowering against the wall, and it hit me like a brick wall where we were. I stared at the monument with a sick feeling in my stomach as I replaced the statues with real people in my mind. Then I looked and found the tree damage from the powerful hoses. I was told the building I could see right across the street was where that actually took place. I couldn’t stop looking at it, picturing the hoses blasting the children.
When I was finally able to continue walking I came to another monument, one of large vicious dogs. I again stopped and starred. I took in the peacefulness of the park that day and yet there was a day when it was witness to the brutality of humans using dogs and fire hoses against innocent children. I looked down the street and could "see" a child being rolled down the street by a hose, and others being attacked by dogs. It made me physically ill. How can people be so cruel?
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Jake Boll:
The representation of the cell where MLK Jr. wrote the letter from Birmingham jail. The writing was enlarged on the wall and it was read aloud as I stood there and listened to it. It was very moving and I decided I want to spend significant time studying that primary source in my classroom. The document embraces the troubles that King and African Americans everywhere were experiencing and it truly captures the spirit of the movement. He is in the lowest of lows but looking at the big picture and why it is necessary to fight the good fight. When I grasped the bars and listened to the words of the letter I imagined all of the successes since MLK Jr. yet also many of the short comings of the movement.Vincent Czahor:
In one section of the museum they had the actual jail bars from the Birmingham Jail Dr. Martin Luther King was held. He of course wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail behind those bars and the museum had an excerpt from that which had the audio of King reading. It was quite powerful and great justification for the Civil Rights Movement. The part of the letter describing how he tried to explain to his young daughter that they could not go to Fun Town, an amusement park, because of segregation, really still strikes me.Heidi James:
The side-by-side comparison of the white school room and the colored school room. How could anyone feel good about that? The white school room was spotless with great lighting, clean, new desks, notebooks, and pictures of George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower. On the other hand, the colored school room had old floors, old wooden desks, terrible lighting, few materials, and pictures of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass on the wall. Again, who could feel could by that? Just another way that the white man suppressed the black man. How sad that the very young were targets.Jay Kluz:
The fire-bombed bus of the freedom riders. Even though it was a replica, it felt real. The dark lighting gave the bus a really eerie feeling. Seeing the smashed windows and luggage lying in the doorway really lent a sense of urgency. Its placement around a corner made it somewhat of a surprise--it snuck up on me even though it came after a giant smashed window labeled "freedom riders." The pictures that followed, especially of Jim Zwerg, also gave it a human feel even though there were no figures in or around the abandoned bus. The courage of the riders to see it through to the end knowing the violence they were going to face is amazing to me. I can't imagine the commitment it would take to put yourself through anything like this.Mary Devine-Giese:
Funtown/Carnival. Of all the many, many rights and privileges that were denied African Americans through segregation the denial of entrance to this one type of place left its own deep and everlasting scar.Before even discussing that they had been held at the fairgrounds after their arrests as child marchers, Janice Kelsey and Clifton Casey both brought up the inaccessibility of the fair to African Americans. Janice especially remarked of being able to see and hear the carnival on the other side of the fence and of her desire to attend as a child, but since African Americans were not allowed access to the fairgrounds until after 10:00 on Saturday night, she had never been able to go to one. Janice and Clifton must of have felt this loss greatly to be adults and still feel the pangs of their childhood self’s pain being of being shut out. Also of course, there is the irony of being placed in the very location they were denied access to when space was needed to “pen up” marchers.
Martin Luther King Jr. too felt deeply the pain this denial of admittance meant, not to him necessarily, but as a parent who has to explain to a child who longingly desires the delights and excitement of all a carnival has to offer why she can’t go. The pain he must have suffered in attempting to rationalize an irrational rule knowing how much it would hurt his little girl. MLK Jr. was so scarred by what this denial of access forced him to do that the pain of it came out in his letter from the Birmingham Jail.
…when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six- year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to forming in the little mental sky...
Liz Bohl:
The artifacts were amazing – the tank, KKK robe, Jim Crow era advertisements were just a few of my favorites. They set up their exhibit to take you through Birmingham’s history so the viewer could better grasp how Birmingham became the South’s largest segregated city. Sometimes I think as teachers, and frankly the public in general, never really look at the Civil Rights much before 1963 or after 1968. I liked seeing the before and after movement history – how far we’ve come and how far we have to go.The other thing I was impressed by was the level of viewer interaction in the museum, especially their use of technology. This is a museum that kids would enjoy and I was able to see a student group go through it, it was interesting to watch and listen to their opinions on things. Throughout this trip I feel like this has been a major theme: How do we engage the next generation to learn and understand this history?
Erin Lynnes:
Today we talked to Ahmad Ward at the Civil Rights Institute of Birmingham. He contends that the while bigotry still exists, today discrimination is more socio-economic than race related. I think the two are related. According to Ahmad, Birmingham's Parker High School had its first white graduate just four years ago. Mountain Brook, Alabama, one of the richest cities in the entire United States is 98% white. Tuskegee, Alabama, where poverty is evident, has a population of 9,865. One hundred seventy three of them are white.
White flight has created economically depressed cities that are predominately black leaving their public schools or districts with little money upon which to build good public schools. It's hard to pull yourself out of poverty without a solid education. It will be impossible for the South to continue to heal from its race problems when black children and white children have no chance to interact and get to know each other as people.
It's a vicious cycle, and I have no answers. In the meantime, I hope people like foot soldiers Janice Wesley Kelsey and Cliff Carey continue to share their stories so people are reminded of the dangers of discrimination and inequality.
Foot Soldiers Janice Wesley Kelsey and Cliff Carey
Ryan Prod:
Tina Krummel:
The past is something that we study while others live it. Listening to the two speakers (Janice and Cliff) really put a human perspective on the event. I watched Janice as she remembered her friend that died in the bombing, watching her choke up with emotion some 40 years later showed the pure emotion of the event. That made it personal. History is something that should be personal.Cory Nazer:
Again, the personal experiences of the people who lived the Civil Rights Movement won the day. The “Foot Soldier” panel was by far the most moving portion of the day. What I find most fascinating is not the discussion of the marches themselves, but the personal anecdotes that went along with their descriptions. To hear that girls went to the church meetings to meet boys and that police officers were beating and taunting black children for no apparent reason, once again, made the Movement more real to me. Those stories, along with others, help me understand the Movement more holistically—which no in-class discussion could ever do. Also, our conversation after the presentation (during lunch) about the recent ACA Supreme Court decision, reaffirmed for me that these people are not simple Civil Rights activists, they are truly interested, active citizens. Obvious—I know—but sometimes you need to have that conversation before you realize it to be true.The Footsteps of Children
Michael Downie:
The impact of walking in the footsteps of the children of Birmingham and seeing the fire hoses pointed at them huddled against the wall left a lasting mark on my soul. Seeing 16th Street Baptist church and the four girls that died from the bomb in September of 1963, is an experience everyone should make a part of their life. I plan to bring my own children here one day. I can only hope that they are able to meet some of those living who marched, went to jail and experienced the fear from the police officers that were supposed to protect them. I feel a deep sense to protect the right to vote for the duration of my life after visiting Kelly Ingram Park and the Civil Rights Museum in Birmingham.Andrea Podpeskar:
The day in Birmingham made me think a lot about my students. I wonder who would stand up for a cause and fight like the children of Alabama did. Would my students leave school, defy their parents, all for a cause that wouldn’t benefit them for years? Would they be able to live without their cell phones, Facebook, and families while locked up in an overcrowded cell?How We Choose to Remember, three perspectives
Deb Foster:
As we traveled from place to place in Alabama it became apparent that the Civil Rights Movement is still contested history. From the moment we entered Alabama, we were confronted with the memorial at the Welcome Center reminding us and all who entered that Alabama stands squarely on the side of states’ rights. The state is rich in the history of the Movement, yet it seems that few resources are allocated to the various places.In Selma, the interpretive center was less than five years old. The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute was still being constructed. In Montgomery, the Dexter Avenue Parsonage Museum is a private venture. The Alabama Capitol has multiple examples of honoring the history of white supremacy from the portraits of the Wallaces to the monuments honoring confederate soldiers and law enforcement officers. In Birmingham, city leaders dictated that no negative depictions of law enforcement officers be allowed in the Kelly Ingram Park which is dedicated to telling the story of the Children’s March to desegregate Birmingham. Throughout these cities there were places where multiple historic markers had been erected each telling the story of the Civil Rights Movement through the eyes of the group that had erected the marker.
Alabama seems to be a state that has not come to terms with its history yet. According to many of the speakers we listened to, there are still people within these communities that do not acknowledge one another. While there footage and images clearly show white Alabamians serving as law enforcement officers, few people have been willing to come forward and talk about their involvement in the suppression of these movements for civil rights. There are stark divisions in communities like Selma between the white and black sections of town.
The contested nature of this history and the work that continues to be done was quite evident at the Civil Rights Memorial Center in Birmingham where the sign posted states clearly that “Armed security officers on duty.” The Southern Poverty Law Center continues to fight against hate and bigotry through legal advocacy and education. The SPLC challenges in court laws that clearly target vulnerable groups, and is also a voice for tolerance. The curriculum materials that are created by the SPLC are free to educators and are some of the best materials available to teach about hate and intolerance. The organization attempts to shed light on the dark world of contemporary hate groups by tracking and naming them in the publications they produce. The struggle for civil and human rights is not over.
Tate Pagel-Haglund:
An interesting point was brought up again today that seems germane not only to what we are studying but to the craft of history itself -- what does it take to get history “right”? We once again met some people who were directly involved with the Civil Right Movement. Janice Kelsey and Cliff Casey discussed their perspectives and included the motivations, details and emotions related to the Birmingham children’s movement. They mentioned in passing that the way it’s told isn’t always right. Joanne Bland (who we met two days ago) felt even more strongly that the historical treatment the movement has gotten is not entirely accurate.At the same time there seems to be very little perspective from the other side of the struggle. The sculptures depicting monitor guns do not have sculpted firefighters standing behind them, and few of the police, deputized citizens, or bystanders have their views shared in the “official” story. In American history it is often African Americans’ voices that are left out and Whites in power that have their story told, but this time it is reversed. Perhaps this is because “History is written by the victors.” Most historians are (rightly) working to include more of the African American perspective in American history. The flip side of that coin is to make sure the White perspectives -- which are no doubt diverse -- should still be covered in this particular episode of history. Even if historians as individuals disagree with the messages they will hear, it is important to capture these stories while the people who struggled to restrict rights are still alive.
All of this is a good reminder that even the near history -- which was videotaped, documented, and most importantly that there are still people who can share their stories—is none-the-less a matter of interpretation.
Eric Nelson:
The monuments at Kelly Ingram Park were striking. For one I find it interesting that the statues that depicted the events of the Birmingham riots had no fireman or policeman. As a historian it bothers me when people distort history to make themselves look better. This is not the first time and it certainly will not be the last. Yet, I can understand the current members of the police and fire department not wanting to be connected to the event of the park in Birmingham not so long ago. Most of the people in the departments these days have no connection with the people running it in 1965.Then we come to the statue with the children behind bars. On one side children (who did not look very African American) were depicted standing and the other side had bars with the words “Segregation is a sin” upside down. Our guide said that this was because the artist wanted to convey that segregation is a broken policy. It looked like to me it was put in upside down. Was it an accident? Given what we saw at the Alabama State Capital and some of the other attitudes that we saw in the South I would say “No.”
16th Street Baptist Church
Jay Kluz:
The memorial to the four little girls
Jason Pickering:
Having kids changes everything. What if those were my kids? What if one of them was Dr. King’s kid? Could he have continued nonviolence? Could he have said, “you can bomb our houses, you can bomb our churches, you can kill our little children, but we will never stop loving you.” How can someone believe that? that is why he is so amazing. I cannot wrap my mind around the hate that must be involved to kill kids.
Gary Giese:
To stand on this spot where the bomb blast had taken the lives of those innocent girls. This had to have been a time when the people’s faith was shaken. You could see and hear the emotion in Janice Kelsey’s voice as she talked about that day.Sarah Pickering:
Sometimes people’s hate really confuses me.Robert Piotrowski:
These children had done nothing wrong. These children were preparing to sing praises to their creator.Cynthia Walrath:
Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley didn’t have a clue that their lives would end so abruptly and that they would leave such an impact on so many people. I still cannot imagine how there could be so much hatred for one race that someone could take the lives of such innocent children. We think of a church as a safe haven...Kelly Ingram Park
Margaret Perri:
Walking through Kelly Ingram Park by myself, at one point I heard sirens off in the distance. I couldn’t help but feel like the fire truck that began to emerge into view, was coming for me. The irony here is that it is 50 years later, and the firemen weren’t coming g for me, obviously. But, I could not help but feel the emotional upheaval that once took place during that moment in time, for innocent people begging and struggling for equality in the “Land of the Free.” I sat down upon a concrete bench, and took it all in. A young black girl sat down next to me at one point. We greeted one another, and she began to tell me how she has never seen so many people walk through this park in just one day. I felt honored just being there.
Nathan Jungmeyer:
Coming out of the Baptist church children faced violent crowds, brutal police officers, fire hoses and canons, and dogs. The statues along this paved walk give a tourist a feeling of discomfort that pales in comparison to the real situations. Yet compared to your run-of-the-mill famous-person statue, these pieces of art stir the emotions and help you to experience historical events. In this way, the art in Kelly Ingram Park is better than any 3-D movie Hollywood has to offer.Bill Gill:
The monuments were well done -- though it was unfortunate to hear that the reason they did not put figures behind the water cannons was because of a deal with the city. This systematic cleansing of the history is a concern. I find it absurd when laid against the events that are so prominently discussed elsewhere on the site. Images, however, do play a major role in how one views history. The Dogs monument was perhaps the most startling. It does an excellent job of putting the viewer into the event. One thing that seemed wrong was that the posted rules of the park. The first three rules were specifically aimed at young people. They effectively made the park a no use zone for kids. This seemed ironic for a park dedicated to honoring the acts of young people seeking freedom.Ruth Lovejoy:
As Atticus says in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view — until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Jeffrey Hauser:
How vicious did it get in Birmingham,snarling dogs at the ready,
attacking those peaceably assembled
in search of equality.
Amy Lund:
The dogs seemed bigger than they would have been in real life. I think this might be artistic in nature – to a child, the dogs were probably huge and this statute helps other people understand the dogs from a child’s point of view.Michael Perri:
The sculpture of the two children huddled against a building attempting to shield themselves from the fire hoses. As represented, these are not hoses but water canon, but with no one at the “trigger.” It seems that a compromise was reached before this sculpture could be erected. Police and fire organizations were against showing their members using such force against innocents. So history is altered out of shame for the facts. At least our guide made a point to shed some light on this fact, but how many walk by this image and are denied the full picture.
Jeff Woodward:
By 1993 when this memorial to those children who had to endure the fire hoses of Bull Connors' firemen was built, one would hope that the white political establishment would be able to own up to the fact that a generation and a half before their predecessors had committed terrible wrongs. It is high time to move past this, admit our own faults and treat all Americans with equality, but when you have to leave the firemen out and mount sculptures of water cannons on tripods without the men who used them in the picture it makes a joke of your supposed attempts at reaching for equality. As an educator it is my job to address these issues and attempt to help my student understand the continued injustice of the acts of leadership in places like Alabama. Equally important though might be to show how some of those same injustices continue in many other forms in many other places including Wisconsin.Ann Hewitt:
Birmingham was a difficult day of travel for me because I have struggled on a very spiritual level with the amount of violence during the Civil Rights Movement, particularly violence towards children. I have attempted within my own life to follow Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. down the path of non-violence, both because I feel that it is the best path for my personal soul, but also with the hope that if enough people were to choose the path of non-violence, the world would become a better place, especially for children. Our current world is still filled with violence upon all sectors of society. I feel that we have improved as culture in that now the violence towards children, no matter the social class, race, or creed is fairly universally seen as wrong. I simply cannot fathom how it could have ever been different.Did the firemen struggle with the order to spray the children? Did any of them refuse to participate by calling in sick, hitting something else, or in some other way? How could a policeman hit and brutalize a child? Did any of these people show regret for their behavior? These are questions that may remain unanswered as many of these people are no longer alive or are unwilling to publicly discuss their roles in such a contentious situation. However, I feel that the lesson of how public safety officials behave is one that needs to be constantly discussed and those who behave poorly need to be held accountable, otherwise more tragic cases of brutality will occur. All children deserve better than what happened in Birmingham.
Frank Juresh:
For many years wrongs were done to African American citizens. I just don't see how the people that were hammered down, nor the people that did the hammering will become whole as a culture until both sides (in any of the 50 states) equally take the ownership of the pain their actions caused.
No comments:
Post a Comment