These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

We had a very long day today, but for once, we spent none of it in the hotel, and all of it on the road.

We started the day by going through the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. They have a HUGE multi-million dollar museum set up showing off the various aspects of the civil rights movement. The museum included a short film on the early history of Birmingham, an exhibit with examples of different types of segregation, an exhibit with examples of the stereotypes that both whites and blacks had, a gallery of exhibits featuring the major events in the movement, and then an exhibit identifying significant milestones from after the end of the movement. It was a great museum that I wished that I had a little more time to see.

We then sat a bit in front of their statue of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, Birmingham’s civil rights minister. Normally, Rev. Shuttlesworth would be meeting us in person, but he’s recovering from a recent stroke and could not join us. Late today, though, his wife popped by in his place.

We then walked down the block to Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and in the sanctuary, we had a final lesson on the aftermath of the bombing and listened to Dr. King’s eulogy for the girls. We then had lunch in the basement of the church–now a kitchen area–which was where those girls were at the time of the bombing.

After that, we had some free time, during which we went to the Civil Rights Institute’s gift shop (I spent $105 there on a poster, two books, and a DVD), and to the historic Kelly Ingram Park across the street, which was where dogs and firehoses were used on protesting children in 1963.

We left at 2:00 en route to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, but we stopped in Meridian, MS along the way to visit the gravesite of James Chaney, who was abducted by the KKK and killed while working on the Freedom Summer project in 1964.

Finally, on the remainder of the bus ride to Hattiesburg, we had a bus lesson on the Dahmer family, who we will be meeting tomorrow. (More about them tomorrow.) We finally arrived in Hattiesburg and checked into our hotel.

Tomorrow, we will have another busy day and get to meet another family…

Tags: Birmingham, bombing, Chaney, Civil Rights Institute, Civil Rights Movement, Dahmer family, diaries, Freedom Summer, Hattiesburg, Kelly Ingram Park, Meridian, Mississippi, museum, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sojourn to the Past

These are diary entries that I wrote throughout my ten-day Sojourn to the Past trip on February 14-23. Each entry is posted here two weeks after it was originally written, due to the provision that I didn’t have any computer or internet access during my trip. Be sure to check out my other Sojourn to the Past coverage. Enjoy.

Today was a special day that we spent doing some special things. It was shorter than usual to make up for the huge day that we had yesterday.

We started with a 9 AM wake-up call, which is extraordinarily late for Sojourn. After our breakfast, we started the day with a lesson on the Birmingham movement in 1963, a movement led large by children who were willing to fill up the jails to bring the city to its knees. It’ll probably go down as my favorite lesson of the trip, and it’s definitely one that I hope to be able to learn even more about.

After the lesson, we drove to Birmingham, and while we were driving, we had a short bus lesson on the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing on September 15th, 1963. We quickly checked in to our Birmingham hotel, and then drove to the studio of the McNair family. The McNairs were the family of one of the four little girls killed in the church bombing: Denise McNair (age 11).

At their studio, we watched the Spike Lee Documentary Four Little Girls, which profiled the girls and told the story of the bombing. After the movie finished, we had the opportunity to hear Mr. and Mrs. McNair speak and answer questions (and of course share great big hugs with everyone). Then, the McNairs actually made dinner for us–their surviving daughter is a professional chef and they made a great dinner of excellent tacos for us. (Yes, we just had tacos last night, but these were MUCH better.)

That pretty much was today in a nutshell. Tomorrow, though, we’ve got a very busy day coming…

Tags: Birmingham, bombing, children, Denise McNair, diaries, jail, McNair Family, movement, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sojourn to the Past