June 15-17 Marshall Lewis

June 15-17 Marshall Lewis

Its been a long couple days, as you can probably tell by my lack of blogging lately. So I'm going to give you a brief summary of the last 3 days. After our stay with the Quaker family in northern Alabama we began to travel to certain historical landmarks in Montgomery and Birmingham. Soaking in the cultural significance of such sites as the 16th street baptist church, home of infamous church bombings of 1963, which claimed the life's of four young girls an sparked rebellious conflicts that's helped fuel the civil rights movement. In Montgomery we visited the state capital, which over looked the civil rights memorial with the inscription: "until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream" -MLK. This quote symbolizes how the injustices of the world should be over run by the natural flow of justice; however, I could not help but witness the irony of our surrounding as I learned that the same capital which over looked the memorial was build by the same people who escaped slavery through the underground railroad. I experienced the same ironic feeling yesterday when SNR visited Selma, the home of the 3 marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge; home of bloody Sunday. For all of those whom aren't familiar with the meaning of the marches, as I was days ago, then i'll inform you that the marches were non-violent protests against poll taxes and the other injustices that prevented African Americans from casting their ballots. Bloody Sunday was when the local police unleashed a variety of "crowd control " tactics against the protested. Many people lost their lived to the onslaught of tear gas, police brutality, and attack dogs. Yet as I walked through
Selma could not help but notice how the current city seemly failed the expectations that their predecessors had fought for. We met wonderful andge generous people in Selma. By no means M I trying to disprispext the city. Yet at the same time certain aspects kf the city stood out to me: such as the 50% drop out rate, or the fact that our hosts whom were lifelong residents didn't feel safe traveling to a gas station Alone at night. In fact after selma began to break the boundaries of racism injustice, the white population relocated. So far on this trip I have noticed how our present racial conditions seem to have come out differently then what our forefathers fought for. People have begun just how lucky they are to have the freedoms they have today. At a certain point in time simply getting a drink of water could lead to a body hanging in the trees. And maybe I am overexagerating the issue but it's just one reoccurring theme that I've started to observe through this trip



Sent from my iPhone