Day two in Birmingham
Today we toured downtown Birmingham, from the 16th Street Baptist Church to Dynamite Hill down the road. We began by walking around the church (it was closed for Memorial Day weekend), and then strolling Kelly Ingram Park. At this park is where the Children’s March took place, a time when local children marched for freedom instead of adults, in hopes that they would not get arrested and the adults would not lose their jobs. Unfortunately, the children were severely hurt. The statues throughout the park depicted the violence that occured that day, and they were very powerful. One statue in particular, one where violent dogs are being held back police officers, stands out in my mind. I can’t imagine how scary that day must have been. This park was the divide in the city between the blacks and the whites, which is why the commotion took place there; after people saw the brutality of it all- even to the children- they realized that change needed to happen. But despite this violence on behalf of the police officers, the African-Americans were committed to remaining non-violent. I couldn’t believe how scary that must have been, yet remaining peaceful amidst this chaos deserves the most honorable respect I could ever imagine.
After Kelly Ingram Park we explored the Civil Rights Institute across the street. We saw old signs that divided the whites from the “colored” for everything from drinking fountains to buses. The pictures were shocking, but what really surprised me was the statistics about the differences in education among whites and blacks. Whites had incredibly more funding and the classes were the traditional sort; for African-Americans, however, the classes were agrarian or vocational. I couldn’t believe that the state would allow such discrepancies, and it made me realize that you can’t always trust the government to be fair.
For lunch we went to “Mrs. B’s on Fourth,” another typical Southern dining restaurant. I thought everyone was nice and friendly but later that night, DJ mentioned that the employees didn’t like serving the white girls in our group. I was really surprised that I had not even realized the “tension” in the room, but I guess it makes sense. I guess since I am not in a minority group, being an “outsider” does not usually cross my mind. It must be hard to be aware of these observations all the time; I can’t even imagine what the would be like. At first when I heard that I was a little bothered; I felt like I wanted to tell them that I wasn’t any different than their other customers. Perhaps this preconceived notion of who individuals are is at the heart of the problem.
Later in the day, we heard Mrs. Heidi and the Shores sisters talked about growing up in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement. Mrs. Heidi lived down the street from the Shores sisters, whose father was Arthur Shores (famous attorney). These women barely interacted throught childhood because Mrs. Heidi is white and the sisters are African-American; paradoxical to the time, the Shores family was much wealthier than the Heidi family. This was surprising to hear, and points to the importance of intersectionality when observing people and situations. These women told fascinating stories about life in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement. They both lived on “Dynamite Hill,” notoriously named due to the neighborhood’s tendency to get bombed. Ms. Helen Shores talked about how she was not able to go to Kiddieland, an amusement park, when she was young; this was dissapointing to her, clearly. Her family particularly lived in fear because her father’s prominence in the political sphere made them an easy target. I wasn’t shocked by the Shores’ stories, but hearing about these problems firsthand made me ponder how devastating it would be to live in a place where you aren’t accepted because of physical appearance. The ways in which these sisters were discriminated against also exceeded my previous understandings. At the end of the talk, Mrs. Heidi said something that made me look at the 1950-60s in a completely different way. She said that this time was difficult for everyone because everyone lived in fear each day. Once I thought about it, the more I felt that this movement was needed for the entire community, and that when one group is oppressed, it is detrimental for everyone. Mrs. Heidi’s comment make me feel attached and connected to the problems that everyone faced fourty years ago.
After we talked for a while, Mrs. Heidi took us to see the first elementary school that desegregated in Bermingham. The house she grew up in was right near the school, and she often saw a burning cross left from the KKK in the mornings. I can’t imagine waking up to find a burning cross in the back of a school!