Post 27 The Civil Rights Trail

The Civil Rights Trail and Hot Springs National Park March 18-29

After leaving Florida we headed across the deep south and stopped at some of the significant sites of the Civil Rights Trail. 

Our first stop was at the Civil Rights Museum in Albany, Georgia, housed in the old Baptist church where Martin Luther King spoke.  In 1961, members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) traveled to Albany to organize the black community to protest against institutional segregation.  They began with a sit in at the local bus terminal.  Although it was peaceful, it stirred others into action to form the Albany Movement.  The aim was to end all segregation in the city.  Peaceful protests resulted in the arrest of over 700 people.  Martin Luther King came to Albany to join the protesters and was, himself arrested.  In the end, the movement did not achieve the goals it set for itself.  King believed this was due to protesting segregation in general and not focusing on one distinct facet of it.  Although the goals were not all achieved, King also felt that much was learned in Albany. New inspiration was then taken forward to Birmingham and Montgomery.  

Next stop, Selma, Alabama. 

In the spring of 1965 there was a voting rights movement underway across the South.  As part of the movement, Martin Luther King and a young John Lewis organized a march from Selma to Montgomery to meet with Governor George Wallace about their right to vote.

It took three attempts to successfully complete the march.  The first attempt was met by state troopers wielding batons and tear gas as they attempted to cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge.  People were beaten unconscious and left on the bridge.  The event became known as Bloody Sunday. 

 A second attempt to march was made a few days later but was stopped by a court injunction.  Finally, two weeks after the first march and accompanied by federal marshals for protection, thousands of activists made their way toward the capital. Five days and 54 miles later, the marchers completed the Selma to Montgomery road.  A crowd of 25,000 met them at the capitol building. 

The brutality of Bloody Sunday shocked the nation and helped make way for the quick passage of the Voting Rights Act in August of that year.

The whole road from Selma to Montgomery is a National Historic Trail. We walked cross the Edmund Pettis Bridge and spent time at two remarkable interpretive centers.

In Montgomery, we spent the day immersed at the Legacy Museum and the The National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Powerful.

The Legacy Museum is an immersive experience chronicling racial injustice from slavery to mass incarceration.  Exhibits explain the African slave trade, Jim Crow laws and mass incarceration, showing how all are inter-connected. It was beautifully done with many first person interviews and videos. The sculpture installation created by Ghanaian artist Kwame Akoto-Bamfo was very powerful. It featured lifelike concrete heads and busts emerging from the floor, representing enslaved people in the hold of the ship. 

Its Legacy Museum's sister site, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, memorializes the thousands of racial terror lynchings that occurred across the US. These 800 monuments, hanging from the ceiling, list KNOWN lynching victims from each state and their county.  Needless to say, thousands more were never reported. The outdoor memorial uses it's design sculpture and art to help understand racial terror and its legacy today.

It was an emotionally heavy day...

Our campsite was in the small town of Wetumpka, Alabama.  Erin and Ben from Laurel, MS and TLC's Home Town did a whole downtown makeover a few years ago. We spent a day walking around to see the sights, walked through a new art gallery, stopped at a cute coffee shop and later had an early dinner at Coach's Place.

Our last stop on the Civil Rights trail was Little Rock, Arkansas.

In 1954, the court case of Brown v Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court.  It demanded school desegregation "with all deliberate speed" but no set timeline.  It was three years later, in 1957, that nine black students attempted to integrate the Little Rock schools. 

Before school even began, the governor ordered the National guard to bar the students "for their own safety."  The students heed the warning and don't show up for the first day of school, however many protester do.  The next day, the nine show up at school to a large mob of protesters and are barred from entering.  They don't return to school for three weeks.  Judges get involved and prohibit the National Guard from the school, leaving any protection of the students to the local police force.   It becomes clear that the police can't handle the job when rioting breaks out amongst the protesters in front of the school.  Three weeks into the school year, President Eisenhower sends in the 101st Airborne to escort the nine to their classes.  They remain with the students for a few weeks.  The nine complete the school year but not without both physical and verbal abuse.

At the end of the school year, the governor puts forth a referendum allowing the people to choose whether they want to integrate the schools or not.  They vote "NO."  The governor knows he can not follow the wishes of the voters without breaking the law. He chooses to close all Little Rock high schools for the 1958-59 school year leaving 3600 students, both black and white, with no access to education.

Parents are furious and over the course of the year and demand the schools reopen, even if it means they must integrate.

The schools did reopen the following year with three additional black students.  Today, Little Rock Central is still a functioning high school.

The Visitor Center offered great displays with video and interviews with the nine students.  And the ranger was a recent graduate!

Little Rock Part 2- Hot Springs National Park

We ventured about an hour south of Little Rock to visit Hot Springs National Park.

The hot springs in this Arkansas site are unusual because the water is not heated through a volcanic process.  Instead, gravity pulls the water slowly down into the earth's crust where it increases in temperature.  When it reaches a fault on the mountain slope, pressure pushes it upwards to the surface where it emerges at 143 degrees.  It's estimated that it takes over 4000 years from falling raindrop to exiting back out through the spring.  

Early in the 1800's, crude bathing holes were built where the water flowed out of the mountainside.

  In 1832, the government learned of the springs after the Louisiana Purchase and moved to protect them for all to use and Hot Springs Reservation was established.  Around this same time indoor bath houses began to to replace open bathing holes. By 1901, to protect the springs and retain their heat, a water collection and distribution system was installed and most of the springs were enclosed.  A few were left open for people to see the water coming out of the ground.

The Hot Springs area experienced its heyday in the early 1900's when people came to bathe in the hot mineral springs. In 1921 it was named Hot Springs National Park. 

It was thought by many that bathing in the mineral rich water cured most anything that ailed you.  The treatments were prescribed by their doctors at home. Most would come for a few weeks with bathing treatments every day. In its peak year of 1947, one million baths were taken! By 1962 and through the late 80's the bath houses start to close due to decline in interest and expensive maintenance costs. "Bathhouse Row" was named a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Today, the National Park partners with business owners to restore and reopen the bathhouses. Many of the old bathhouses along the Row have been refurbished and been adapted for new use. A couple are still operating as bathhouses, one as the visitor center, one as the park store, one as the admin building and another as a private brewery.  It was interesting to learn about the source of the mineral water and the history of the town as it grew.

We took a tour of the Fordyce, which has been completely refurbished and serves as the visitor center.  Patrons came for the baths , massages, exercise and other treatments.  

People were also encouraged to drink the spring water.  There are still fountains along the row to grab a glass of water!  It tasted good!

And the day wouldn't be complete without a stop at the brewery.

When we visit an area, we try to sample the local food.  This week we kept passing signs for boiled peanuts touted to be the "favorite snack food of the south."  You can find them in every truck stop or convenience store boiling in the kettle.  They come hot and still in the shell.  They are a similar texture to beans (soft) and salty.  They had mixed reviews from the two of us.  Anne found them tasty, Cindy couldn't get past the mushy texture.

Tomorrow, we're off to Tennessee.