‘Bama (06-25-18)

Our research in Alabama was a long shot, searching for a Frances Chesley, who may or may not be an ancestor of Paul’s, but we figured it was worth a stop in the Montgomery area to check it out.  We have never been here before, and we both liked the feel of the (small) city.

The architecture was interesting and the city had a clean feel to it.

We found a nearby COE  (Federal) campground, with long, level sites for our stay in Montgomery. It was the first time Paul  got to use his Old Farts Pass(senior citizen National Parks Pass) for a discount, so the site only cost us $13 a night! Dozer liked it because it had lots of grass to eat.

It didn’t take us long to realize we weren’t going to find any new information, so we went in search of other things to do. Montgomery is known for its role in our civil rights history of course, and I was interested in the Rosa Parks museum.

While looking online, we discovered that the museum was having a street party celebrating Juneteenth (the end of slavery), and there would be music and food.  As an added perk, the entrance fee to the museum was being waived for the day.

We all know why Rosa Parks is famous. After a long day of working, she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. And she was arrested for it.
Her arrest and the verdict of “guilty” sparked a 13 month long protest that was the beginning of a lot of changes in this country. Shortly after the protest began, they realized they would need to be organized if they were going to achieve any results.

Martin Luther King Jr. was chosen to head the newly formed Montgomery Improvement Association. Their original goal was to boycott the city busses until the segregation laws were made more “fair”. For instance, black people paid for their bus ride by entering the front door of the bus, but then were required to exit, and enter by the rear door.

Feeling that their requests were reasonable, they were shocked when they were denied. It was then that Dr. King realized that “justice and equality would never come while segregation remained, because the basic purpose of segregation was to perpetuate injustice and inequity”.

Now the push was on to fight for desegregation itself.

For 13 months, the African Americans of Montgomery walked, carpooled, rode in makeshift taxis, and accepted rides from white people who agreed that their cause was just. What they didn’t do, is ride the bus. The protest ended when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on city busses was unconstitutional.

A  small, but important step.