Stop and Go


Stop and Go

Originally shared by ****

Montgomery, Alabama - Stop 155: The Birthplace of the American Civil Rights Movement

People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. [...] No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. 
~ Rosa Parks, Mother of the Civil Rights Movement, in Rosa Parks: My Story, 1999

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
~ Martin Luther King Jr., Where Do We Go from Here : Chaos or Community?,  1967

From its inception, it was a people's movement. The cumulative effect of individual acts of passive resistance brought about modern democracy's finest hour. Most of those who made the movement weren't the famous; they were the faceless. They weren't the noted; they were the nameless - the marchers with tired feet, the protestors beaten back by billy clubs and fire hoses, the unknown women and men who risked job and home and life. We honor all of them today. May the waters of this monument create ripples of hope - now and forevermore.
~ Julian Bond, Civil Rights Memorial dedication speech to a crowd of 6,000 on Nov. 5th,1989

Just around the corner from where a passionate young preacher use to stand at his pulpit, and the broad capitol steps where a long march ended - within the borders of an important town where a 42-year-old woman was arrested for not giving up her seat on the bus, and a bus full of brave riders was attacked by an angry mob - stands a plain black wall with these simple words ...until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. 

The place where the pulpit stood was Dexter Avenue Baptist Church and the passionate young preacher was Martin Luther King Jr. whose words are engraved upon the black wall and were spoken as part of his most famous speech, I Have a Dream. The broad capitol steps are the steps of the Alabama State Capitol where the Selma to Montgomery March ended and Martin Luther King Jr. proclaimed, "No tide of racism can stop us." The 42-year-old woman was Ms. Rosa Parks, civil rights activist whose single act of defiance helped to initiate the civil rights movement. The bus full of brave riders were the Freedom Riders whose courageous interstate ride from Washington, DC to Jackson, Mississippi was interrupted by the Ku Klux Klan's attack and fire bombing that they barely escaped with their lives. And the important town, the birthplace of the American Civil Rights Movement, is historic Montgomery, Alabama where the Civil Rights Memorial and the plain black wall with its immortal words can be found: https://www.splcenter.org/civil-rights-memorial

The Civil Rights Memorial also contains a fountain formed from the same black granite as the wall and engraved with the names of forty-one civil rights activists and leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr.,  who gave their lives in the struggle. The memorial is sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center. The SPLC is dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society. In the words from their site, "the SPLC works toward the day when the ideals of equal justice and equal opportunity will be a reality.": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Memorial

And that fight is far from over as the tragic killing of nine at worship in Charleston, South Carolina, one of sadly many events, proves that hate is still alive in the United States. We must continue the fight against hate until, as Martin Luther King Jr. said,  "[all] will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"

Image from: http://www.amdoc.org/projects/truelives/pressroom/mayalin/images/03_mayalin.jpg

This post is inspired by the 1886 children's geographic game, Rambles Through Our Country. At the time that the game was published, the war to end slavery was long over, but a new set of laws to mandate racial segregation in all public facilities in states of the former Confederate States of America known as "Jim Crow" laws were very firmly in place and violently enforced. The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church were Martin Luther King Jr. would one day preach was known as the Second Colored Baptist Church and was one of the earliest organizations to serve the African American community by hosting the first registration of students for Alabama State University.

The RTOC game involves a gameboard, a book or key to the stops, and some kind of spinner. Find the gameboard here: http://goo.gl/7ORK1E  and the book here: https://goo.gl/u96JE3 To spin, use the random number generator at: https://www.random.org/ and set the maximum number to 4.

I rolled a 2 on the makeshift  teetotum and moved from Vicksburg, Mississippi - Stop 152: The Civil War and the Caves of Vicksburg to Montgomery, Alabama - Stop 155: The Birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.

#ramblesthroughourcountry   #thecivilrightsmovement   #montgomeryalabama   #thecivilrightsmemorial   #rosaparks   #martinlutherkingjr   #thecivilrightsmemorial

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