MLK Holiday in Montgomery

For Martin Luther King Jr. Monday Clay and I went to Montgomery to see some of the famous Civil Rights sites.  

We started by going through the Rosa Parks museum where we "went back in time" and got to see what is was like to live in Montgomery during the peak of the Civil Rights movement.

Next we went to lunch and found out that the community was going to match from the Post Office to the Capital where there was a rally held.  We decided to head over and see what it was all about.

The march featured some awesome school bands (think of the movie Drum Line) and there were SO many people walking with us.  As we neared the capital we all bowed our heads as someone said a prayer and then we listed to Martin Luther King's "Dream Speech" while finishing our walk up the capital stairs.  We listened to many different political leaders speak about the significance of this day and also about issues that we are still facing (Alabama has about a 40% high school drop out rate).  Clay and I also got interviewed by the local television station about our feelings for the day (we may have been chosen because we were a minority there that day...which really was too bad).

As we drove back home Clay and I discussed what we had learned from that day and we were very surprised how open everyone was about the significance their city played in not only the Bus Boycott but in the Civil Rights Movement.  We were even more surprised about how little we were taught about this historic event in our schools and communities.  Our eyes were really opened to the issues of that time period and began to understand why there are still issues today.  I saw a sign that a little girl was holding and it said: 

"We need to learn to love"

How true...we all still need to learn to love.