We continued our tour of Montgomery. On Monday morning, we toured Dr. King’s parsonage which had been bombed when he was the pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. His home was bombed while he and his family lived there. It’s really very hard to understand the kind of hatred that would make anyone wanted to bomb his or her fellow man. We could see how he and his family lived. We were showed the place where the bomb entered the house. Our eyewitness reporter told us how Mrs. King and the children were at home. She told us how Mrs. King and a friend were sitting in the room next to the room where the bomb exploded. When the bomb exploded, they ran to the place where the baby was sleeping to make sure that their baby (Yolanda) was safe. Dr. King was out of town. I can imagine the pain that he felt when he heard that his home had been bombed and his wife and daughter were at home. I can imagine the relief that he had when he heard that they were okay.

After leaving their home, we went to Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. It has an active membership of 300. We were taken on a tour of the church. The church is well taken care of. Dr. King was the pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church for a while. The church is beautiful. The people are very proud of the fact that Dr. King was once their pastor.

We had lunch at a wonderful southern restaurant, Odessa’s Blessing. The food was delicious and staff was very gracious.

We traveled on to Selma. Our next stop was the Voter’s Rights Museum. It was quite an education. The eyewitness reporter had participated in the protest marches. He was eleven years old at the time and had been jailed two times. The children marched to protest the voting discrimination. He said that they were imprisoned from 10 AM to 11PM at night each time and did not receive any food.

They have a wall in the Voter’s Right’s Museum. Everyone who participated in the March from Selma to Montgomery is asked to sign cards stating that they were there. They had policemen who beat the marchers, marchers, hecklers, and observers who were there to sign cards to say that they were there.

It was hard to believe that African Americans were asked such ridiculous questions as: How many bubbles are in a bar of soap?

How many black jellybeans are in a large jar of jellybeans? Of course their answer was never the correct answer. These were questions that they had to answer correctly before they could register. The white people did not have to answer any questions. They just walked in and registered.

The marches started because the people were tired. I can understand that. They were treated like they were not people. I can’t understand how anyone can look at another person and say to him or herself that they are not good enough to have the same rights. People were killed to prevent African Americans from voting. People were beaten, hosed with strong sprays of water that would remove the skin, lynched, shot, and dogs were trained to attach them.

The Freedom Riders came to the South to help people register to vote. The people had to hide them. Those who did not want the African Americans to vote schemed to kill and hurt the Freedom Riders. They did not want them there. They were very brave.

We walked in the footsteps of very brave people. They were willing to die for what they believed. The Freedom riders came from the North some of them were killed just because they wanted to help people vote in American. I believe that my America was and is the home of the free and the land of the brave. I never read anything in the Constitution that said if a person wants to vote and their color is Black that they should not be allowed to vote and should die.

Where did these people who hate learn to hate? Why do they hate? Why should one group be the victim of hate?

We walked across the Selma Bridge, which had been the site of Bloody Sunday and other voter registration demonstrations.

It was truly an experience. I respect those ancestors who protested even though they knew that they would be attacked. Freedom to vote was very important to them. It was more important than staying in a comfort zone. Now, some people do not vote. My question to those now chose to not vote is: Why don’t you vote?

The eyewitness reporter showed us an example jail cells that they were placed in. There were pictures of all the black elected officials after Black Reconstruction. They lost their positions after the Jim Crow Laws were implemented. Jim started laws were the start of Blacks not being allowed to register to vote. It legitimated these denials of equality to African Americans.

The cells were horrible. Across the street from the National Voting Rights Museum, there was an apartment house. On the second floor, there was a dog on the roof, a confederate flag, an American Flag and a Blue and White Flag. I wonder why that was there. The dog was barking pretty loud. It was good that he was on second floor of the building. He was not a friendly dog. It was truly an education.

After leaving the bridge in Selma, we went to Brown Chapel. It was where the marchers assembled. It is a beautiful church.

Next, we went to the Slavery and Confederate museum. It had one section on slavery, one section on the civil war and one section lynching. We left at 5:10. They told us to come back because they had something special for us. We checked the St. James Hotel. It is an older hotel which has been restored. It was built in the 1800’s and then closed. It was reopened in the 1960’s.

We returned to the slavery and the confederate museum. This time we had a very intense experience. We treated like slaves. It was an intense experience. I will never forget it.

After the session, we returned to our hotel and were treated very well our rooms were great and the food was excellent. In the morning they prepared an excellent complimentary breakfast.