The Road to Civil Rights

16th Avenue Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama

Over the last two weeks I journeyed out to visit my dad in Arkansas.  People always look at me strangely when I tell them that I usually drive up rather than fly.  The simple reason is that it gives me the opportunity to visit historic sites and also the odd places that make up our national landscape.

Over the last two weeks I decided to focus on issues related to the Civil Rights Movement.  I guess it only makes sense, since I would be traveling through the heart of Dixie.  On this trip I spent a day in Birmingham studying the sad events that took place there, visited the former home of Medgar Evers, payed tribute to Emmett Till and conducted my own investigation into the murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner.

I found visiting these sites to be very emotional because in terms of history the events are so close to us.  In many of my travels I am visiting sites where the history happened so long ago that the personal connection is just not there.  There was something about visiting the civil rights locales that had a feeling of newness to it, almost like the residual energy was still present.

One question that often entered my thoughts is just how much the places had actually changed.  How has society progressed or not progressed in the last 50 years?  Although I had been to the site where Emmett Till had "flirted" with a white woman, I was drawn back there because I had heard Mississippi had put up new memorial markers paying tribute to the young boy.  A portion of the highway is now even named after him.  Progress? Yes, but then I was disheartened to learn about vandalism of the signs.  One of them was spray painted with KKK while another marker showing the spot where Emmett's mangled body was discovered, apparently was pulled out of the ground and supposedly dumped in the Tallahatchee River.

While touring the sites I did come to the conclusion that we have come very far as a nation concerning civil rights, but there is still much that does need to be done.  We might not have the KKK as a solid entity anymore, but there still are prejudices that are still harbored within some.  I'm sure there always will be.

More to come....