We headed an hour out of our travels today from Hunsville AL to Tupelo MS, to visit Birmingham - the centre of the Civil Rights struggle - and in particular to visit the Civil Rights Institute
http://www.bcri.org/index.html
Sadly, it is closed on Mondays! This would have to be the first time in all our travels through the USA that we have found anything closed at _any_ time! We were so very disappointed. However, a local man took us across the road to the 16th Street Baptist Church, where there is a memorial to 4 girls killed in the bombings there 49 years ago to the day. I never expected to feel so emotionally overwhelmed as I was in Birmingham. Standing outside the church at the memorial I was a blubbering mess. It came on so very suddenly and out of nowhere. We took a self guided walk around the retail district where the infamous "sit ins" occurred, as form of peaceful protest by the African Americans, and that were met with such atrocious violence by the white police force. It brought sharply to mind my memories of studying 'To Kill a Mockingbird', of recently reading the 50th anniversary edition of 'Black Like Me', and of 'The Help'.
We headed over to the McWade Science Centre for the rest of the morning - something a little more upbeat to counter my mood - and something of immense fun for the kids. We followed this with a BBQ lunch and a piece of chocolate cream pie - hoping all the while that the pie didn't have the 'special ingredient' in it that the chocolate cream pie in the novel "The Help" did! :)
We are now in Tupelo - birthplace of Elvis. We head for the Natchez Parkway tomorrow.
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| Victoria on a bed of nails! |
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| Making bubbles |
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| Measuring brainwaves - seeing who is the most relaxed - Oliver won! |
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| On the 'skybike' |
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| Feeling the effects of winds at high speeds |
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| Oliver! |
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| BBQ Alabama style - the young staff were keen to know if we knew of Keith Urban before he became big in the US. We told them he was a mate of ours - of course we knew him! |
