OTR Version 11.0 — the never better tour
During a visit to Birmingham on a previous OTR we had taken in quite a lot of the history of the civil rights movement. At the time, a guide at the 16th Street Baptist Street Church had recommended that we visit Montgomery in the future to further our knowledge and understanding of the history of slavery and the civil rights movement in the United States. As we planned to head south before heading west to Arizona, we incorporated a stay in Montgomery into our journey.
We chose the Trilogy Hotel as our base. The hotel is located in the heart of the city and within walking distance to the museums we planned to visit (as well as coffee).
The Trilogy Hotel opened in 2023. The hotel reflects the history of the city, consisting of two renovated cotton warehouses joined with an 1851 Greek Revival mansion housing the hotel restaurant (The Kinsmith). The hotel is beautifully decorated with artwork and furnishings which are authentic to the area. The service was friendly and professional.
After checking in we departed for Prevail Union for coffee and tea. We were assured by our barista at Seeds (Birmingham) that Prevail is the only specialty coffee shop worth visiting in Monty.
We also met local artist Bob Adams while at Prevail. Bob worked for many years as a court room artist for the local television station in addition to producing his own work. The work clearly required an eye for detail and the ability to work quickly. Bob is 70 years old but still draws for about 90 minutes every day and has not lost any of his skills as you can see from the drawing below, which he completed while we were enjoying our drinks.
Our first museum visit was to the Rosa Parks Museum. The museum provides a re-creation of the fateful day when Rosa Parks refused to relinguish her seat on the bus in order that a white man could sit.
The re-creation is accomplished using an actual city bus from that time period with a digital representation of the people and characters involved visible through the bus windows. The exhibit is well done and quite moving.
We definitely recommend visiting the Rosa Parks Museum if you visit Montgomery. The link embedded is from the museum and provides an excellent overview of the life of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
https://www.troy.edu/student-life-resources/arts-culture/rosa-parks-museum/about/index.html#bus
We also visited the Legacy Museum during our stay in Montgomery. The museum opened during April 2018 and was built on the site of a former cotton warehouse (there were many in Montgomery). The museum endeavors to tell the story of enslaved Africans starting with their kidnapping in Africa through to the years of Jim Crow and race issues which still persist today. (All photos courtesy of the Legacy Museum)
The museum is state of the art — making full use of technology to deliver an experience from the perspective of enslaved individuals. The exerience for us was quite intense.The physical and emotional suffering of the enslaved individuals is tragic. It is difficult for us to fathom how slave owners could have by any measure justified owning and brutalizng other human beings.
The museum also delves into the slave trade in detail. We commonly think about the hardships inflicted upon the enlaved individuals on the plantation while overlooking the misery and frequency of deaths that occurred on the slave ships. Over two million people died on the journey from Africa — starvation,sickness, beatings and sheer exhaustion.
Of course, slavery did not truely end with emancipation in 1865. As southerners were allowed back into politics and positions of power most African Africans found themselves anything but free. White only laws and other barriers restricted blacks in every aspect of their daily lives.
Another dimension of the immoral treatment of African Americans occurred all too routinely during the 12 year period of Reconstruction (1865-1877). Lynching of blacks by white mobs and the KKK. Over 2000 lynchings have been documented during that 12 year period. Sadly, a additional 2000 lynchings have been documented from Post Construction to the end of World War II.
We could continue on but instead will provide you with a link to the Legacy Museum if you are interested in learning more. We will leave you with one quote that we think captures the essence and depth of racism that existed in the South for over 200 years.
“In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”. George Wallace, Alabama Governor, 1963 Gubanatorial Inaugural Address
We learned quite a bit more about black history in the United States during our visits to the two museums. The town itself is was nice but seems a bit on the sleepy side. The museums are worth a visit if you are going to be nearby but not a destination in our opinion.
We are heading west from Montgomery on US 80 through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. US 80 was, before the construction of the interstate system, one of a handful of coast to coast two lane highways We will keep you posted on what we find along the 80.
Be seeing you!
street.art.tourist—Pennsylvania to Alabama
ON THE ROAD with Maria + Stephen 