History Lessons in Montgomery, AL

We left Gadsden, AL on Monday and moved from a scenic park to one right off the interstate in the city of Montgomery, AL. The campground isn’t the most scenic; pretty much a large field of RV sites with a fishing pond at the back. There aren’t very many trees in the park itself so with the sunshine we have had, the lack of shade made it difficult to enjoy the outdoors. That said, we like the easy pull through sites and no obstacles to parking the RV. It is definitely a convenient place to stay while traveling and most people seem to just stop here overnight although a few others have been here all week like us.

Staying in the city definitely has its advantages especially being here during a holiday week. The downtown wasn’t busy with most of the government offices closed over the holiday. That made our trips into downtown easy - very little traffic and convenient parking. We enjoyed a few days visiting the various museums in town. By now, you probably realize that Tim and I are history buffs so we really enjoyed visiting Montgomery. There is so much history here and many museums and memorials to visit.

We started with a visit to the Rosa Parks Museum which took us back to the turbulent times in the 1950’s and the birth of the civil rights movement. The museum has two wings, a children’s museum and then the adult museum. We visited both and became immersed in that time period and highly enjoyed the visit. Afterwards we moved on to the state capital building and found easy parking nearby.

Montgomery has more handicap parking sites than I have seen in any other city that we have visited and those spots have free 2 hour parking. It made our visit easy; we could park and walk to various sites and then move to another parking spot to see more. There are historical markers along the streets in town and we discovered that the First White House of the Confederacy was near the capital building. I was not aware this was in Montgomery so a surprise for a couple history buffs. It was free to tour it and they had furniture and relics used by Jefferson Davis. Of course, the capital building is beautiful, so I took a few pictures there. A block from the capital building is the Dexter Ave. King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as the pastor. So much happened in Montgomery during the civil rights movement from the bus strike and freedom rides to the civil rights marches.

On another day, we visited the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and The Legacy Museum. The memorial was difficult to visit for me; it shares an ugliness that many want to forget ever existed in our country as it memorializes lynching victims. I agree with the creators of the memorial - we need to recognize that this culture existed in our country. The Legacy Museum is located in a warehouse that once served as part of the slave trade.

It is another place that told our awful past of racial injustice. The stories displayed shared the horrible lives endured by the slaves and how, afterwards, it didn’t really change with the free but unequal culture that endured for many, many years. I was sickened by the graphic photos of lynching scenes that went from the late 1800’s up through the mid 1900’s. I cannot comprehend how thousands of people could watch such horrible sights as if it were entertainment. Even after the civil rights movement and the end of the Jim Crow laws, inequality still exists.

Tim at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Photography was not permitted in the Legacy Museum so was only able to take these pics of the historical plaques outside.

I was a young child in the early 1960’s living in a small town with very little diversity and the civil rights movement made a profound impact on me. I could never reconcile the culture of racial prejudice that I saw around me with my christian teachings. I really thought that as a country we had moved past that culture; after all it has been over 50 years. Unfortunately, what we see happening today shows that hatred and ugliness still exists. These museums are important and everyone should visit them in hopes that we can all learn from this and become a more opening and accepting culture moving forward.

While in Montgomery, we spent Thanksgiving at the campground and made a great meal in the RV. I have never been good at making pies though so didn’t even attempt it in our little RV oven. There is a TA truck stop across the road from the campground so Tim suggested we go there for pie and coffee first before making our Thanksgiving feast. Definitely a great idea. Nothing better than pie and ice cream! We are planning a quiet weekend here at the campground; just do some grocery shopping, laundry and hang out here. We leave on Monday to head to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores, AL. After 2 months of traveling, we will finally make it to a beach! I am definitely looking forward to that.

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