HST 272

Democracy i= n Action: The Nonviolent Civil Rights Movement

Itinerary a= nd Questions for the Reflective Journal

January 16-= 20, 2007

As you know, you will be asked to produce a reflective journal based on our experiences on the travel portion of the course. This document provides a schedule = of our activities on the trip, as well as prompts that will help you write your journal entries. In addition = to the specific instructions provided below for each museum or tour, please think about the following, more general questions as you write each entry.

· Were the displays visually pleasing? Were they organized in a way that h= elped you make sense of the events they are interpreting?

· Did they present historical information in an effective way? Was this infor= mation presented in a way that reflected the complexity of reality? Did the museum present more than o= ne perspective?

· Did you find that the museum or tour provided you with information beyond what you already knew based on the assigned rea= ding and class discussions? It is important that, wherever possible, you make connections between the museum = or tour and what you learned through class discussions and assigned reading.

· Could you discern any interpretive or ideological bias that was strong or surprising enough to warrant additional comment?

· Did the displays strike an appropriate balan= ce between being creative and aesthetically pleasing on the one hand and intellectually sophisticated on the other? (I'm not presuming that these two impulses are mutually exclusive, so it's possible for you to conclude that a particular museum or tour did both particularly well.)

In addition to these, be sure to respond directly to t= he questions posed for each of the sites.

SCHEDULE AND JOURNAL ENTRY PROMPTS

Tuesday, January 16

Travel to Birmingham

7:15-7:30

Board the bus in the Moseley Center parking lot

7:30

Leave Elon for Birmingham

4:30

Estimated time of arrival in B= irmingham (note that Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery are all on central time, so we will be one hour behind the time in Elon) =

Check into the Pickwick Hotel

Dinner on your own in the area surrounding the hotel=

Wednesday, January 17

Birmingham

9:30	Be on the bus, ready to depart for downtown Birmingham
10:00-12:30	Tour the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
12:30-1:45	Lunch
2:00-3:30	Tour the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park
3:30-5:00	Bus tour of significant civil rights-related sites i= n Birmingham
5:30	Return to the Pickwick Hotel Dinner plans to be determined

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

This is one of the premier civil rights museums in the country, and I hope you will enjoy visiting it. In your entry for this museum, ple= ase respond to the common questions listed at the beginning of this document. This is our first museum experienc= e of the trip, and I think it will set the bar rather high.

To make certain you take full advantage of this museum= , be sure to see (and comment briefly on) all of the following:

The Confrontation Gallery, which “dep= icts the climate of violence and intimidation that reinforced segregation.<= o:p>

Do you think the guid= e did an effective job of interpreting this site, especially given the fact that = it is both a historic site and a working, active church? In addition, comment on how your experience here was shaped by Four = Little Girls and the assigned read= ing and class discussion.

K= elly Ingram Park

Here is what the City of Birming= ham's official web site has to say about Kelly Ingram Park:

Distinguished as "A Place of Revolution and Reconciliation," historic Kelly Ingram Park serves as a threshold to the Civil Rights District. During the Civil Rights Movement, t= his public park became the focal point of a grassroots resistance to the inhumanities of racism and discrimination by law and by custom. Events which took place in Kelly

Ingram Park vividly portrayed the realities of police dogs and fire hoses turned on marchers who gathered for civil rights demonstrations in the 1960's. These = very images, which shocked the country and the world, proved to be instrumental = in overturning legal segregation in the nation. Sculptures commissioned for the park depict attacks on demonstrators, children jailed for their role in the protests, and a tribute to the clergy's contributions to the movement. In s= harp contrast to scenes from the 60's, all paths on Freedom Walk converge on its center, a peaceful and meditative life spring of hope.

Reflect on the fact that the place that produced Bull = Connor and that was once known as

"Bombingham" has now created an official spa= ce to serve as a kind of public apology. Were you convinced that the park represe= nts an authentic, genuine expression of sorrow and remorse? Did it seem to you = to be an appropriate way to deal with an unsavory part of the city's past? Is = this a model that other Southerners should emulate?

You may also see the Gaston Gardens on the site formerly occupied by the Gaston Motel, the black-owned motel th= at served as Martin Luther King's headquarters during the campaign.

Thursday, January 18

Selma<= /st1:City>

7:45

Check out of the Pickwick Hotel and load the bus

8:00

Depart for Selma

10:00-2:00

Footprints of Freedom Tour (lunch included)

2:30-4:45

Drive from Selma to= Montgomery alon= g the route traveled by the marchers in 1965.&= nbsp; We will stop at the site of Viola Liuzzo’s murder and at the= Lowndes County Interpreti= ve Center.

5:00

Check into the Embassy Suites Hotel in Montgomery.

Dinner plans to be determined

Footprints of Freedom Tour (National Voting Rights Museum and Institute)

The Footprints of Freedom Tour, conducted by the National Voting Rights Museum, is describe= d as "an in-depth interpretation of the voting rights struggle." In addition to touring the museum itself, we will also have the opportunity to see other sites that were important in the Selma campaign, including= Brown Chapel AME C= hurch and the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

On this tour, pay special attention to see if you reco= gnize some of the places mentioned in Eat= ing Dr. King’s Dinner. = How did our tour guide, who participated in the Selma movement, contribute to your expe= rience on this tour? Finally, think = about the way the events of the Selma campaign a= re interpreted in the Nation= al Voting Rights Museum. Did you notice any differences bet= ween the interpretation offered in the museum and that provided in the assigned reading?

L= owndes County Interpretive Center

This is a newly-opened center, operated by the Nationa= l Park Service. Think about the gene= ric questions posed at the beginning of this document.

A= labama State Capito= l

We will culminate our journey, as the original marcher= s did, on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol.= Reflect on what it is like to stand here, where thousands of people listened to Martin Luther King speak just over forty years ago.

Friday, January 19

Montgomery

8:45

Be on the bus, ready to depart for the Rosa Parks Museum

9:00-11:00

Tour the Rosa Parks Museum

11:00-12:30

Tour the Dexter Parsonage Museum

12:30-2:30

Lunch

2:30-4:30

Tour the Civil Rights Memorial Center

5:00

Return to the Embassy Suites Hotel

Dinner pans to be determined

The Rosa Parks Museum

In his fascinating book, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook

Got Wrong,= James W. Loewen introduces the concept of "heroification," a term he us= es to describe how we tend to "turn flesh-and-blood individuals into piou= s, perfect creatures without conflict, pain, credibility, or human interest.&q= uot; As a result of this process, Loewen argues, we are denied "realistic r= ole models" and tend to think about the past in shallow, one-dimensional, = and intellectually immature terms.

Any museum that exists for the purpose of celebrating = one person runs the risk of "heroifying" that person, and it will be interesting to know whether you think the Rosa Parks Museum falls into that trap. In yo= ur discussion of this issue, offer specific examples from the museum or its publications to support your position.

As you tour this museum, compare its interpretation of= the Montgomery Bus Boycott with that presented in Cradle of Freedom. Were there significant points on which the museum differed from the book?

This is a wonderfully creative and fascinating museum,= and I know you will enjoy it.

D= exter Parsonage Museum

In your entry, please respond to the common questions provided at the beginning of this handout.

Also, think about the issue of heroification (see the = entry for the Rosa Parks Museum) and

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil Rights Memorial Center

Operated by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Civil Rights Memorial "honors the achievements and memory of those who lost their lives during the Civil Rights Movement, a period framed by the moment= ous Brown v. Board decision in 1954 an= d the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968." We will begin our vi= sit with a short program led by a staff member at the Center. Unlike most of the other sites we have visited thus far, which focus on particular events or personalities, the Civil Rights Memorial and Visitors Center offers a broader look at racism, intolerance, and the civil rights movement. Did you find this broader perspective to be useful?

Saturday, January 20

Atlanta

9:00

Check out of the hotel and load the bus for Atlanta

2:30-4:30

Tour the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic S= ite

5:00

Check into the Atlanta/Downtown AmeriSuites

Dinner pans to be determined

Martin Luther King. Jr. National Historic Site=

This site consists of four facilities: the National Park Service Visitor Center, Freedom Hall (the primary exhibition facility of The King Center), the Martin Luther King Birth Home,= and Ebenezer = Baptist Church. Please visit at least three of the= se.

At the National Park Service Visitor Center, you will = want to see the two videos, "Courage to Lead" and "Children of Courage," as well as the exhibits. Freedom Hall also contains exhibits (which you will want to see), and it is particularly known as the site of Martin Luther King's crypt and gravesite.

As you write about this site, keep in mind our class discussion of King and the concept of heroification, as well as they way the authors of the three assigned books treat him in their works.

7:45	Check out of the Pickwick Hotel and load the bus
8:00	Depart for Selma
10:00-2:00	Footprints of Freedom Tour (lunch included)
2:30-4:45	Drive from Selma to= Montgomery alon= g the route traveled by the marchers in 1965.&= nbsp; We will stop at the site of Viola Liuzzo’s murder and at the= Lowndes County Interpreti= ve Center.
5:00	Check into the Embassy Suites Hotel in Montgomery. Dinner plans to be determined

8:45	Be on the bus, ready to depart for the Rosa Parks Museum
9:00-11:00	Tour the Rosa Parks Museum
11:00-12:30	Tour the Dexter Parsonage Museum
12:30-2:30	Lunch
2:30-4:30	Tour the Civil Rights Memorial Center
5:00	Return to the Embassy Suites Hotel Dinner pans to be determined