The last leg - Little Rock and then home...

I awoke in my hotel, which happens to be a National historic landmark (although I am unsure why), a short distance from the state capitol building. It was built to resemble the national one, and it does. It's quite striking. Little Rock, a city of 180,000, has a great feel to it. It is very easy to get around there, and it has gorgeous views over the Arkansas River. As a landlocked state, Arkansas depends heavily on its river. In fact, today that river sees trade from over 100 countries. I love when I just pick up random facts like that.
Being that everything opens at 9 am, I had some time to kill. So, I wandered to MacArthur Park. I was curious as to its name, and sure enough, Douglas MacArthur himself had been born in the arsenal there- which still stands- in 1880. The armory/arsenal is now home to a museum in his name. It's on military history. I did learn, however, that the arsenal was the first target of Union forces in February of 1861. The captain at the time immediately dispatched that he would surrender the arsenal to prevent a war. He never had to; the Union forces instead went north and east. Fort Sumter instead led the way. The park also has an amazing Korean War Memorial. The statues in the center represent a medic (for the work they are often not honored for doing), an African American soldier (since the Korean War was the first fought with an integrated army), and Korean children (thousands of whom sought humanitarian aid from the soldiers). Around the statues are monuments with the names of fallen Arkansasans but also facts and statistics on the Korean War - the "forgotten war." It was impressive. There were a few Confederate statues and monuments in the park as well.
I arrived at the Little Rock Central Historic Site as they opened their doors (run by the National Park Service). I snapped a few photos of the high school itself, once coined "the most beautiful high school in the country" for its brick structure and gorgeous architecture. The school magnificently spawns two city blocks. Little Rock had four high schools in 1957. Central High was the white school on that side of the city, and Dunbar was the black school. Dunbar got the hand-me-down books and supplies from Central, although the Dunbar curriculum itself was considered quite good at that time. Central is still used today, but Dunbar is now the middle school. The site has amazing displays that place the Little Rock Nine into the timeline of events unfolding in the Civil Rights movement. There are many, many audio clips and videos to hear and see - from testimony then to interviews decades later, including media coverage of the first day.
By 1957, many leaders of the movement in the South decided it was time to test Brown v. Board. Activists such as Daisy Bates (the street is now named after her) sought out students at Dunbar who would be willing to integrate Central. She looked for students who lived closer to Central but who also had a genuine interest in the school. There were quite a few students at first, but when they found out that they would still not get to participate in extra school activities such as athletics, band, or choir, many stayed at Dunbar. That left what became known as the "Little Rock Nine" - six girls and three boys. Most of these were sophomores or juniors; there was only one senior, Ernest Green.
The night before school opened for the year, Governor Orval Faubus announced he was sending in some National Guard troops because if black kids tried to go to that school tomorrow, "blood would run in the streets." Indeed, the National Guard troops refused to allow the nine into the building. Appeals were made to the federal government. Eisenhower was unsure of how he should handle the situation. He discussed at length with Faubus that he needed to allow the students in, but Faubus continually argued that segregation was up to the states, not the national government. Eisenhower left Faubus with a threat and an order. On September 24th, police escorted the nine into school. There were riots, so they were forced to leave. It was not until September 26th, that the students were allowed in and stayed the entire school day.
Eisenhower had federalized the Arkansas National Guard with Executive Order 10730. This was about 10,000 troops. He ordered them to Little Rock. He also ordered the 101st Airborne (about 1200 soldiers) there as well. Eisenhower addressed the nation by saying, "Mob rule cannot be allowed to override the decisions of our courts." So, yes, it took over 11,000 soldiers to protect nine teenagers seeking a better education. And a large number of those soldiers (over 1000) had to stay the entire school year! Faubus and others such as Strom Thurmond continued to fight what they believed to be the feds overstepping their role. Some segregationists even hired lawyers to argue that desegregation was a communist plot to destroy traditional values.
The Nine met at Daisy Bates' house each morning. They piled into a station wagon that was escorted by two army jeeps. One student reported it was the first time a white person had ever held a door open for her. As they walked into the school, the white students chanted, "2, 4, 6, 8, we don't want to integrate." The Nine came up with their own (not aloud of course): "4, 6, 8, 10, the Guards will take us in." For weeks leading up to this day and for months afterwards, the families got threatening phone calls, and some lost their jobs. The White Citizens' Council, with Thurmond as a leader, would threaten white families if their kids were nice to any of the Nine. The school day started with an all-school assembly. The speaker was Major General Edwin Walker of the 101st. He told the students that they would not tolerate any trouble. That did not stop the white students from passing out "gift" cards to one another, allowing them one kick to a Negro student. The spitting, harassing, and small physical attacks went on as long as the students could get away with it.
According to the Nine, their teachers were mostly helpful. None of them were threatening, but some had better classroom management than others. Although Mimmijean was expelled that year, the others finished out the entire year, catching up on the lost month. When Ernest Green graduated in May, two platoons were stationed underneath the bleachers. Martin Luther King made the trip to watch him get his diploma, becoming the first black high school graduate of an "integrated" school.
Faubus was not giving up yet. He closed all the public high schools in Little Rock the following year, supposedly for the "safety of all the students." Parents were outraged, but some were very different reasons. Some students simply enrolled in private schools. The Nine, however, could not because they now became plaintiffs in the ensuing lawsuit. Womens' groups headed up a fight to maintain segregation. Another group called STOP began a campaign to get the segregationists off the school board and promote the cause that education was important, even if that meant an integrated one. They had a special election for the school board, virtually a vote to integrate or keep the schools closed. They won, and the schools reopened in the fall of 1959. Those students, however, lost an entire year of education.
Although the Nine started the chain of events in which other students in other schools and states began to integrate, the fight was hardly over. By 1966, only 16% of black students were attending an integrated school. The states began integrating the high schools first and then slowly made their way down. However, thanks to the case Green V. County Board of Regents, by 1970, 79% of black students attended an integrated school. That was the "at once" verdict of the Court. Little Rock itself became completely integrated in 1972. There is a commemorative garden across the street with arches that visually depict an integrated, and continually improving, Central High School.

After spending more time at the site than I had originally planned, I headed to my final destination: the Clinton Museum and Library. This museum is unlike any other. The chosen site for the museum was in a very derelict area of Little Rock that much needed development. Right by the Arkansas River and an old train bridge, the library/museum is designed to resemble the structure of a bridge as in Clinton's 1996 promise to build "a bridge to the 21st century." It is the only green Presidential library thus far, using solar and geothermal energy. The library has brought in over $2 billion of new money to Arkansas; that breaks down to about $11,000 for each state resident! That area of the city is now a booming industrial center, and the city is considered "recession-proof" now. The library/museum are part of a larger entity consisting of a branch of the University of Arkansas, a water preservation park, and conference center. Wow! Who knew being President could have so many perks for other people?!
The building consists of three floors. The ground floor is mostly used for special exhibits- Elvis at this time. There is a restaurant in the basement; it's called "42." The second floor consists of a short bio video, a reproduction of the Cabinet room, and then alcoves highlighting different aspects of the presidency such as education, health care reform, the work of Hillary, the work of Al Gore, economic plans, foreign relations, etc. It even mentioned the scandals around him such as Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky. The artifacts (over 70,000) and pictures were impressive. The third floor is some biographical info on both Bill and Hillary. The other side of the floor consists of artifacts, photos, and videos of different aspects of the life of the president. This included state dinners, visits to other countries, personal mementos and gifts, letters written to and from Clinton, etc. One of the greatest videos was a compilation of the spoofs that he and Hillary made. Apparently, they made several. Obama has kept up this tradition. Mostly, the videos are shown at the Correspondence dinner. Bill Clinton was really quite funny, and he easily made fun of himself. He not only oozes the swarmy charm of a politician, but he has an intelligently quick wit that endears him to others.
He had quite a few firsts as President. His was the first administration to recognize Hanukkah and Ramadan, having annual celebrations at the White House. He had the most racially diverse administration, and he was the first presidential liaison to the gay community. Websites went from 50 in number in 1992 to over 350 million when he left office. The Starr investigation cost taxpayers $70 million, and after Clinton's acquittal, Congress allowed the Independent Counsel statute to expire. He visited 74 countries on 6 continents. He also raised military pay the highest it had been in a generation. Even the store impressed me. There were the usual cheesy souvenirs to get, but the majority of the store sold items that supported various charities. There was an entire quarter of the store that sold fair trade items, a section that sold items for the library's neighbor, Heifer International, and there was the section that benefited the charities pinpointed by the Clinton Foundation such as "Homes for Haiti" and Tom's shoes.

I then drove the 8 1/4 hours home....
My freedom ride has ended, but the march continues...

Leg Three - Memphis, Tennessee

Rachael and I parted ways this morning, she back to Georgia, and I on to Tennessee.

Memphis: An amazing city! It is thriving with life, especially along Beale Street. It is, of course, the music capital of the world. Nonetheless, I was on a mission..... the National Civil Rights Museum.

Fittingly, the museum is located at the Lorraine Hotel. It was on the balcony outside room 306 that Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot by James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from a Missouri prison, on April 4, 1968. The hotel was owned and operated by a colored couple, and it was the hotel always chosen by the leaders of the movement such as King, Ralph Abernathy, and the rest of the SCLC.

Some quick background as to why King was there on that fateful day. The sanitation workers of Memphis were all black. They were paid between 68 and 9o cents an hour. These wages qualified them for welfare. They had no benefits, and the workers could neither afford the medical care often required due to the hazardous conditions of their jobs nor funerals. Each day the workers had to carry the 50 gallon garbage barrels from alleys, buildings, and garages to their trucks. It was common for these men to find maggots in their clothing that had fallen off the garbage barrels. The trucks malfunctioned frequently, often causing injuries. With the death of two workers in February of 1968 after being crushed in their garbage truck when it malfunctioned unexpectedly, 1300 workers went on strike. Their strike was most notably signifed by their simple choice of sign: "I Am A Man."

King was invited to come lead a march in Memphis. The workers had been on strike for over a month by then, and King and the other leaders saw this as the perfect springboard to call attention to the next big march that King was planning in D.C. This massive march was to be called the "Poor People's March," and it was going to call upon the government to raise minorities out of poverty and create more equal economic rights for them. The sanitation workers were an excellent example of that very poor person - the hard-working, underpaid, upstanding citizen- for which King was fighting. Unfortunately, the first march King led in late March ended in violence. Some of the media spun this as a failure for the movement, and it disappointed King very much. He knew he had to plan, and execute, a peaceful march again the following week.

King arrived in Memphis on April 3rd, delayed a bit by a bomb threat to his plane. It became known that there was a price on his head. An offer was out there that $50,000 would be paid to the person who makes sure King never got to D.C. for his march. Nonetheless, King marched on. That night, there was to be a meeting at Reverend Billy Kyles' church. King stayed at the hotel to work on plans for the D.C. march. It was storming, and he believed few would attend anyway. He was wrong; the church was full of people waiting...for him. So, he was called to the church. It was there that King gave his last speech. This speech is known as "The Mountaintop Speech." He had no notes; he simply yet powerfully spoke from his heart. He was jumpy that night, and it was the only time he spoke of death. He told the people what he wanted his funeral to be like. He also told them that he "may" not reach the promised land with them but that they would still get there. The speech ended with him saying, "I am not afraid of any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" As Kyles put it, "he preached himself through his fear of death."

The next day, King was uplifted again and ready for the march the following day. He and the other leaders were to have dinner at Kyles' house that night. Kyles came to get him shortly after 5 p.m. They talked and laughed in room 306 for a while. A little after 5:45 King and Kyles stepped out onto the balcony. The other leaders (except Abernathy who was still in the room) were in the parking lot below waiting by the limo. King leaned over the railing to harass Jesse Jackson for not being properly dressed and asked Ben Branch if he would please sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" that night. As Kyles headed to the stairs, King turned back to the room to check on Abernathy, and then as he turned back around the shot rang out. Only one shot was fired. The bullet was called a dum dum bullet, which meant it mushroomed once it hit its target. King was shot in the chest, but about half of his face was blown apart and his spine was severed. The hotel owner's wife ran out, saw King down, and immediately had a heart attack. She died within days. King said nothing; he simply crushed his cigarette in his fist. The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes, and he was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital. Kyles struggled with being the only one on the balcony with King (the shot happened after Kyles started walking away). He remarked, "Crucifixions have to have witnesses. That's why I was there. You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream." Although there was some looting and rioting that night, the sanitation workers did get higher wages.

So, the museum starts in what was the ground floor of the hotel. It starts with a video of the shooting, but then it describes the entire Civil Rights Movement from Reconstruction through modern-day. Some interesting things I noted: Justice John Harlan was the only Southerner on the bench when the Court decided the Plessy case in 1896. He was the only dissenter, writing, "The Constitution is color-blind." The NAACP grew from a conference to protest a lynching and race riot in Springfield, Illinois. The last of the Scottsboro boys was released in 1950, spending 19 years in prison although the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1935. The first freedom ride was actually in 1947. In 1896, nearly 30 states had some form of racial segregation. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to the states regarding school segregation. A psychologist testified in the Brown case as to the damaging effects of discrimination on children. He apparently used dolls ("which doll is the good doll?") to test these effects on kids. Brown II in 1955 said the states needed to integrate "with all deliberate speed." This was changed in late 1960s to "at once." By 1961, 70,000 students had taken part in sit-ins, with 3600 being arrested. The leaders of the movement had training sessions so young people knew how to respond nonviolently to abuse and slander. They also had rules (drafted by the Nashville Nonviolent Movement). Mississippi governor Ross Barnett was the first governor to be found guilty of contempt of court by a federal court. This was in 1962 when he refused to allow James Meredith into Univ. of Miss. When Meredith did finally graduate in 1963, he wore one of the segregationists' buttons that read "Never" upside down on his robe. If shop owners in Birmingham removed the "Whites Only" signs from their stores, they were cited by Bull Connor for "violations of the sanitary code." He said, "Damn the law. Down here, I am the law." During the Birmingham children's march on May 6th, 10 youth were arrested every minute for a two hour stretch. The city had nowhere to put them or could handle the numbers. King's family actually lived in a ghetto in the section of Lawndale in Chicago for almost a year from '65 to '66 to highlight the plight of the poor. After these exhibits, you can see into room 306 as it was when King was shot. The museum removed room 307 and created a viewing area there.

The museum ends as you cross the street into the boardinghouse where James Earl Ray stayed. His actual room and the bathroom from where he shot still stand. The exhibits have been arranged around these areas. The exhibits describe the 65 day manhunt, his capture, the investigation, the evidence, and the trial. On display are the rifle he used, the bullet taken from King's body, the actual autopsy report on King, the bullets and other items left behind by Ray, and even some of his hair that was used to identify him. The final exhibit on the second floor describes the questions that still linger: Was it a conspiracy? Did the FBI or other agency cover it up or help fund the assassination (Ray had $9000 for his mission)? Were there connections to organized crime? The final decision by Congress in 2000 was that James Earl Ray did act alone - case closed. There are exhibits to end the tour depicting others that have been assassinated for their pursuit for civil rights and the social, political, and economic changes for minorities since the 60's. Today, there are 2 billion people still living under totalitarian regimes with limited rights. So, the march continues....

Other than Beale Street and wandering downtown, my other stop in Memphis was Slavehaven, a house on the underground railroad. What makes this house so special is that it was located right in the middle of strong slavery enthusiasts. It belonged to a German immigrant who ran the only stockyards in Memphis. Slaves went through a trapdoor on the back porch, crawled under the foundation of the house, went through a hole into the basement, and then crawled through a tunnel to the Mississippi River. Most of these slaves came from Arkansas or Mississippi, reading the codes in quilts along the way. Most runaway slaves had rewards of $50 to $100 for their capture. Harriet Tubman's price was $40,000! I also learned that closets were taxed as extra rooms (not really pertinent), that slaves started working in the fields at age 5, that slave owners used slave boys on which to put their feet to keep warm, and one slave had himself mailed to Philadelphia, thus spending 27 hours in a box!

I am writing this from Little Rock, Arkansas, which will conclude my journey...

Leg Two - Alabama!

Roll Tide Roll!

Rachael and I woke early to begin our adventure. Of course, it wasn't until we arrived in Montgomery that we realized our adventure did not need to begin quite that early. Both Rachael and I forgot that Bama is in Central time zone. We arrived dutifully right before 9 am (or so we thought) to get into the Civil Rights Memorial Center at the Southern Poverty Law Center. Since we had an hour to kill, Rachael and I went exploring.

Our first stop: The First White House of the Confederacy. Although Jefferson Davis and his family lived there for only about five months until it was decided the capital of the South would be in Richmond, the house was well-chosen and continues to be well-maintained. Basically, it is most likely the only museum dedicated to Jefferson Davis (since he is not considered a US President). The house is beautiful, where you can sip your mint julep on the front porch swing as you stare directly at comings and goings at the Alabama Capitol building. The house has many of the original furnishings and possessions of the Davis family-even some from the house in Richmond. I was surprised to learn that Davis had been recognized by leaders in other countries as a head of state. For example, the museum had gifts that his family had received from the likes of the Sultan of Turkey! The house also had many artifacts from the Confederacy in general - battle flags, weapons, uniforms, Lee memorabilia, etc. It was a pleasant sidetrip.

Next stop: Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. It was at this church that Martin Luther King, Jr. served as senior pastor from 1954 to 1959. The timing could not have been better for history. It was in the basement of this church where the Montgomery bus boycott was planned and organized. It was also in this church that twice a week rallies were held during the year-long boycott to buoy everyone's spirits and morale. It was during the boycott that King had the mantle placed upon his shoulders that would become his burden, his cross to bear as leader of the movement. He welcomed it.

Third stop: The Civil Rights Memorial Center at the SPLC. As a member (woohoo!), I not only had admission waived, but I got to actually see my name on the Wall of Tolerance. The museum is small but one not soon to be forgotten nor overlooked. The Center is situated so that no matter which direction you face, you can see the location of a significant event in the movement. The short tour starts with learning the stories of some of the innocent who first lost their lives - such as Emmett Till. He was a 14 year old boy from Chicago who was dared by boys in Mississippi (where he was visiting relatives) to talk to a white woman. Being from the north, he eagerly took the challenge and spoke to a shopowner's wife ("Bye baby"). He was taken from his uncle's house, tortured, beaten, killed, attached to cement, and thrown into the river - where he was discovered three days later. His mother demanded an open coffin so the world could see what was going on. And, people began to pay attention. The presentation on these martyrs is solidified with a video. The rest of the tour focuses on others who have lost their lives to injustice and intolerance since the Civil Rights Movement. It concludes with the Wall of Tolerance and the memorial created outside by the same designer, Maya Lin, as the Vietnam Wall in D.C.

After taking a quick drive by Court Square, where the slave auctions had been held, and the Greyhound bus station, where the Freedom Riders in 1961 were attacked by a huge mob, we arrived at Troy University. Troy University's theater was the site of the arrest of Rosa Parks. Accordingly, the university has funded a museum in her honor. The museum begins with a video, then a reenactment in an actual Montgomery city bus. With the words she spoke when threatened with arrest, "You may do that," Rosa Parks became the mother of the Civil Rights movement. She was fined $10 plus $4 in court costs. The 377 days of the bus boycott, beginning in December of 1955 and ending in December of 1956, was a huge organizational success. The museum takes you through the year of the boycott, highlighting the struggles for the demonstrators (losing their jobs, harassment, etc.) and the judicial battle to officially end segregation of public transportation. The boycott cost the bus line about $3000 a day! It ended up being a success for the organizers, but they did have to concede on a few points. The fight, though, had just begun. This is why Montgomery, once known as the "Cradle of the Confederacy," now became known as the "Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement."

On to Birmingham....just north up the road a bit...

We started with a quick visit to the 16th Avenue Baptist Church. This church witnessed many of the events in the city at that time as it sits downtown diagonally to Kelley Ingram Park. It is here that shortly after the March on Washington that four girls died after the church was bombed. Two other boys were killed by random acts of violence in the city that day. It was the deaths of these young innocent souls that sparked national attention to the causes of the movement - especially in D.C. These bombings and several more earned the city a new nickname - "Bombingham." The case was reopened several times, and the last of the bombers were tried in 2002 and 2004! The Children's March was launched from this church. The students were immediately met across the street by police dogs and fire hoses - ordered by Bull Connor, the Commissioner of Public Safety. The video and photographic footage of this brutality led to a nationwide outcry against such violence, particularly as the students had been prompted to meet the violence with nonviolence. The photos of the students with their hands behind their heads or backs as they are pelted with water or bitten by dogs speaks volumes to the character behind the movement. Kelley Ingram Park is graced with various statues that represent the forms of brutality endured by the youth. You can also follow two paths that have visual markers as they lead you on the routes of the marches through downtown Birmingham.

For over three hours, Rachael and I enjoyed the Civil Rights Institute. The museum is filled with artifacts, video footage, audio commentary, and the layout is designed so you follow a timeline that depicts national events and the corresponding Alabama events. Although Birmingham was built by people of both colors as a coal and iron city in 1871, segregation had always been the custom. In 1921, it became the law. These laws were called "Jim Crow" after a popular minstrel song sung by traveling troupes. The museum walks you through visual displays showing the disparity between white life in the city and the life of the colored people. These displays ranged from theaters to schools to houses to churches. As you walked through the displays, you could read about how the segregation laws became more and more intensified and strictly enforced. The popular use of negative stereotyping helped instill hatred and intolerance in the minds of whites. For example, images often depicted blacks with big lips, stuttering, and eating watermelon - which by the way, was a favorite food of slaves because eaten after a meal, watermelon cleans out your system since the slaves were given the worst of the food such as pig brains. At the end of your walk through the museum, there are displays on fights for rights throughout the world such as Tienamen Square and South Africa. The last room is full of computers, where you can listen to oral accounts of the people who were living these events. Some of the best commentaries were from Reverend Shuttlesworth and the first girl to integrate a school in Birmingham.

We finished the day with real Alabama barbeque at Dreamland. Mmm mmm mmm!