When in Montgomery, Alabama, You Must See This

Montgomery. A town easy to love, remember, and admire. This capital town has a charm like no other. History rains down its streets like a black and white film.

The National Memorial of Peace and Justice. Civil Rights Memorial and vicinity. Riverwalk

Montgomery. A town easy to love, remember, and admire. This capital town has a charm like no other. History rains down its streets like a black and white film. Here is my list of what you must see when you are here.

1. The National Memorial of Peace and Justice

It is free with informative guides to help you around. Carved into its walls is poetry, arisen from the ashes underground are sculptures, or so it seems.

Days earlier, we had read names of soldiers at USS Alabama and Fort Gaines who served during World War II and the civil war. We had wondered if their descendants proudly visited to see the names shining through the plaques. When the thought about family seeing their relatives’ initials at this memorial crossed my mind, sadness boomed. Broken by state and country, engraved in columns are four thousand and four hundred names of those lynched. As you walk amongst the amber metal columns, regret folds and unfolds: why were there so many names? Why did justice take so long?

2. Downtown Montgomery

Take the easy stroll through downtown Montgomery next. We parked by the Civil Rights Memorial, our first stop. The cherry blossoms swayed overhead as we walked to the first White House of the Confederacy across from their state building. The trek to the Court Square Fountain with sculptures and quotes from Rosa Parks also fits a meal like lunch in one of the many restaurants here like the Irish Pub.

Two blocks away, the Rosa Parks Museum offers tours ranging from forty-five minutes and more with a movie. We bought Rosa Parks biography book for the family and a picture book for my youngest. We then lumbered to Hank Williams Statue leading the footpath under the railway tracks to the Riverfront Park.

3. Riverfront Park

Lastly, to soak in the historic tale of events that shaped America, ponder over the sacrifices of Rosa Parks, who had to eventually move out of Montgomery to Detroit to find a job because she sparked and led revolutionary marches, I simmered under its weight at the riverside park.

We spent our day well and headed back to Dauphin Island, where we had rented a beach house, just in time for another spectacular sunset. Montgomery shed light on how small I was despite having written HOUSE OF MILK AND CHEESE on the state of race relations in America. My accomplishment was nothing compared to the true heroes, who had to move, die, lose income to bring about equality. We have ways to go, but we are here because of them. Montgomery, well spent!

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