Day Three-- Montgomery and Selma

As the result of we stay in hotel the whole day because of snowstorm, we change our original plan--- combine the activities of Montgomery and Selma in one day. Definitely this was a rich day.

The first stop today is Montgomery. We started out at the Southern Poverty Law Institute's Civil Rights Memorial Center. When we entered the memorial center, we have to went through security. We must through security because of this museum has been exploded in 1983. In addition, the threats from raceism group still exist today. The memorial was impressed me. We learned stories of 40 martyrs of the civil rights movement. I just know Dr.King Jr. and Rosa Parks before, but there still have a lot of names I can not recognize. What's more, I think the civil rights movement is an event of black people opposed for the unfair treatment with the whites. However, there are some white people, such as Viola Gregg Liuzzo, lose their lifes for civil rights movement. Those people were dead, but their stories are not disappeared, their stories still transmit the power of struggle for equality.

After Southern Poverty Law Insitiute's Civil Rights Memorial Center, we went to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. This church is pretty close to Alabama State Capital, just one block. This church is not big, and it's not very beautiful; but this is a meaningful place, it was the only parish in which Dr. Martin Lurther King Jr. served as the senior pastor. When I saw the desk which Dr. King used, I could imagine the days Dr. King was works for struggle for equality rights.

According to the plan, we are going to visit the Alabama State Capital, but due to I have been there before, so that I skip this part.

After lunch, we loaded bus and hit the road to Selma, Alabama. I don't think there are a lot people know Selma, or this town played the role during the civil rights movement. However, many people must know "Bloddy Sunday" event, just near the Edmund Pettus Bridge. We have a bus tour with our guide Joanne Bland. Bland was the witness of "Bloddy Sunday" when she was eleven years old. We went to a local preparatory school to have our dinner and do volunteering work. After the dinner, we began to help the school teachers to clean almost every stuffs in there. This volunteering work makes me remember my first part time job in China. I used be a cleaner in my Dad's company. That was an interesting experience. When we done the school clean work, Bland began to give us a speech. Ms. Bland is a very independency and strong woman, she looks like doesn't fear anything. When she talked about what she saw about "Blood Sunday", many of our tour members began to cry. We have watched some documentaries and films and read some books about civil rights movement. However, they are kind of the second hand information, like we are watching a cup of water, and there is a glass on the top, so we just look through the glass to see the water. From Ms. Bland's words, we can feel their feeling during civil rights movement. Such as take out of the glass, then we can touth the water, then we know the water is cold or warm.

Tomorrow we are going to go to New Orleans. I am so exciting, I can not wait to go to the French Corner. But before we arrive New Orleans we have a pretty long bus ride, so I have to go to bed right way. Have a good night guys!! See all of you tomorrow.