DAY TWO Montgomery, Alabama

Words by Katy, Year 13

We started the day at the legacy museum, which sits on the site of a former cotton warehouse where enslaved black people were forced into labour. The museum told the story of the slave trade, exploring the impacts it had on individuals and the area, and the foundations it built that have shaped America today. 

The museum explored the journey from enslavement to mass incarceration, fuelled by the lack of accountability or even recognition of the horrors which shaped the African-American population, and the racial biases that still stand. The American legal system has become a tool of racial discrimination, perpetuating a racially biased narrative. First hand accounts of this brought it to life for us, helping to put into perspective the horrors that have been and still are faced. 

It gave us the space to recognise the fight for freedom that has taken place, but also that this fight is far from over.

Words by Lily, Year 13

After we attended the legacy museum we attended The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This is the nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy of black Americans whose lives were lost due to lynching between 1877 and 1950. 

The main part of the memorial showed the names of more than 4,000 black Americans and the circumstances behind the murder. The names were engraved on corten steel boxes that were positioned hanging from the roof of the memorial. There were 800 of these monuments - one for each county. On most of these monuments multiple names were engraved however, on many it stated “unknown” as the person lynched was either undocumented or unknown by the mob who had lynched them. This particularly impacted me as it showed the extent of the racial violence as people were lynching black individuals without even having a known reason themselves to do so or a care to even know who they were attacking so violently.

 However. the memorial not only focuses on the legacy of racial terror and lynching but also has sculptures to commemorate those involved with the civil rights movement such as Ida B. Wells who risked her life to report on the horrors of the lynchings that were occurring in the south. Similarly there was a sculpture of three un-named women created by Dana King to represent the female heroines of the montgomery bus boycott. This sculpture stayed with me as it made me consider the thousands of other black women who were vitally important to the bus boycott who do not get the recognition they deserve and are known as “silent activists”.

 The memorial site was an extremely powerful and moving place to be. It brought to light some of those who had suffered in America due to white supremacy. It was a harrowing experience which showed the sheer number of those who were terrorised by the lynchings and portrayed the anguish, pain, strength and resilience that black Americans demonstrated.

Words by Maya, Year 13

At the end of the day we went on a 15 minute boat ride down then Alabama river. At the end of the boat ride we arrived at the freedom monument sculpture park. At the park there were three places where photos were allowed, one of which was at the entrance under a big arch. Here we gathered to take a group photo. Whilst walking through the sculpture park we were greeted with many faces and scenes representing slavery and the ongoing injustice of African Americans. 

One aspect of the exhibition that particularly stuck with me was these three huts. We spoke to a lady who worked there and she informed us that these huts were really huts where ex-slave quarters that had been used all the way up until the 1970s to house Black Americans. These huts were really very impactful as they were worn down and poorly structured huts, with cardboard and newspapers used for insulation, and seemed uninhabitable. In the second hut, the guide showed us inside and pointed out that on the ceiling was a piece of a cardboard box hanging down. On it was the alphabet written in pencil. This piece of cardboard had been used to learn the alphabet, even though at that time it was forbidden for any black American to learn to read in the state. 

Another very impactful place during this walk was at the end, this also happened to be the other photo place. Here stood a massive sculpture of a book. On it were the family names of hundreds of thousands of freed slaves after the reconstruction. This monument stood at 50 ft tall and the names spread all the way across both sides. Sitting there, looking up at this huge sculpture with the legacies of all this people spread across it was really very beautiful and impactful. Overall, the sculpture park was absolutely amazing.

Some other highlights from the day included one of our students reading MLK's speech as head of the Montgomery Improvement Association on the steps of the Dexter Avenue church where he King was minister. This was a powerful experience as his words echoed down the centre of the town. We then explored the grounds of the statehouse, which where the Freedom March finished in 1965.  We then briefly stopped at the Rosa Parks statue which honours her and the other women who defied the segregated bus system in 1955.

Lunch was at Chris' Famous Hotdogs, started by a Greek immigrant to Montgomery in 1917. As our server was happy to tell his, Chris "didn't care if you were white, black, red, yellow, or blue, as long as your money was green!". The diner was visited by FDR, MLK, and even Elvis - a truly historic experience and we enjoyed chilli dogs while the Monkees played on the jukebox.

We ended the day with a brief stop at a Target, to much excitement, and then most students chose some sort of fast food chicken before an early night to prepare for Selma tomorrow.