Notes from the Road, October 31, 2016

I had a fire under me these last two weeks—probably because I saw the end of this part of my road trip to the National Parks and wanted to cover a lot of ground. Or maybe I am just channeling the craziness of our times. Or maybe I was like a horse that was smelling the barn. In these two weeks, I went from Huntsville Alabama to Las Cruces, New Mexico. At the end of this posting, I have an update on the parks on the Atlantic Coast hit by Hurricane Matthew.

When I left Huntsville, I dropped south to Birmingham to drive along the civil rights’ trails in Alabama and Georgia. I visited an old friend from NMSU who is now teaching at Georgia State University. Phil, Gabby, and Ben are thriving in Atlanta. He is making interesting films with his students around the country and in Hungary. Then I dropped even farther south to the Gulf Coast around Biloxi, Mississippi. After that, I went into Cajun country and gave my first lecture about my travels this year. Thank-you Thomas and the Public History Program at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for sponsoring me at ULL. I then stopped off at Houston to visit the U.S.S. Texas where my grandfather served in World War I and visited some more ex-pat friends from New Mexico—Nancy and Mike.  Here’s a bit more in-depth details about my travels since October 17^th.

From exhibit at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Heritage Trail

The struggle to end segregation and obtain voting rights for minority citizens consumed the U.S. in the 1950s and 60s. This fight brought a radical change to the United States. While the legacy of slavery continues to create inequality in our country, the right to vote and the end to legal racial segregation have moved us toward fulfilling the promise of the Declaration of Independence of equality for all.

I started on the civil rights’ trail at the Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham. The photos and TV footage of police attacking teenagers with German shepherds and of firemen blasting protestors with high pressure fire hoses shocked the public in 1963.

From the exhibit at the Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham

At the park, a young man approached me and asked if I wanted a tour. So for $5, he gave me a tour of the park. We first went to a sculpture of four girls seemingly carefree. It is a tribute to the four girls who died in the bombing of the 16^th Avenue Baptist Church in September 1965. The church was a headquarters for the protests.

I listened to my guide as he read the captions on the historical markers. This might have been his first tour. While his history was a little thin, I was glad to talk to someone who was born and raised in Birmingham.

My guide at the Ingram Park in Birmingham

At one point, another person who I had seen guiding people around yelled at us saying we needed to know our history. This man told us that the fire hoses employed against the protestors were high pressure ones, used to put out fires on battleships. Part of the response to such tactics was to sit down and wrap your arms and hands around your neck and head to protect those vital parts of yourself.

Across the street from the park is the Civil Rights Institute. I had visited this museum over twenty years ago, and it is still a powerful testament to the will of the people of Birmingham to fight for their rights as citizens. At its entrance is a book for people to write what they did for civil rights. At the conference that I had attended twenty-five years ago, Julian Bond gave a keynote speech where he said that he went through that book and noticed that the first mention of Martin Luther King, Jr. came after more than 300 people had entered their memories. He pointed out that the civil rights protest movement did have its leaders, but it was a ground swell of Americans from all walks of life who fueled the protests and fought for the end of segregation.

The museum focuses on the role that Birmingham played with graphic images of police attacking children, of bodies tumbled down sidewalks by fire hoses, and of four girls killed by a KKK bomb as they prepared to attend a church service. Birmingham also served as the place where King wrote his letter from the Birmingham jail that helped publicize the movement. The Institute also has an oral history center where people record their memories about the civil rights movement, and then researchers can access those interviews.

The four girls killed at the 16th Avenue Church (From exhibit at Civil Rights Institute)

Down the highway at Montgomery Alabama, the Rosa Parks Museum is a moving tribute to her as well as to the tens of thousands of African Americans who boycotted the public buses in 1954-1955. Sparked by Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white rider, African Americans found alternative ways to get around the city for over a year. This was an early success of the growing protest movement to use boycotts and passive non-violent resistance to change the Jim Crow laws of the county. Unfortunately, the museum did not allow photos in the exhibit area but there was a fascinating media installation using a replica of a bus from the time period where we could see inside the bus and follow Parks’ refusal to move and subsequent arrest.

From the exhibit at the Civil Rights Institute

I then drove the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Trail. In March 1965, to protest the lack of voting rights in Alabama, a march set out from Selma for the state capitol fifty-five miles away. Just outside of Selma after the Pettus Bridge crossed the Selma River, police stopped the marchers with force and drove them back to the city. The news coverage of this shocked the nation. A young John Lewis, now a US Representative from Alabama, led the march and got trampled. After President Johnson called out the National Guard to protect the protesters, the marchers set out again and arrived at the capitol in five days. It was a major moment in the Civil Rights movement.

John Lewis in the white coat at the head of the march from Selma to Montgomery (From the exhibit at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Heritage Trail)

Marching to Montgomery (From the exhibit at the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights Heritage Trail)

Tuskegee drew my attention next for two reasons. First, the Tuskegee Institute has been a college since 1881. There George Washington Carver taught, researched, and mentored for decades and found new ways for farmers, especially black farmers to use peanuts and other crops. The Institute also trained African Americans in a variety of skills and trades.

On top, George Washington Carver at his lab at the Institute.  Above, students at the Institute learning shoe-making.
(From the Tuskegee Institute NHS)

Not far away, Black airmen trained as pilots and then went to Europe to help win World War II. One of the airfields they used is preserved by the NPS.

On top, the hangers at the airfield. Above, pilots learning to fly combat missions
(From the exhibit at the Tuskegee Airmen NHS) 

On the way to Atlanta, I visited the Horseshoe Bend National Military Park. At this little known battlthe in 1814, Andrew Jackson and his militia and Indian allies defeated a group of the Creek Nation which led to all of the Creeks removal to Indian Territory in present day Oklahoma.

Creeks defend at Horseshoe Bend (From the exhibit at Horseshoe Bend NMP)

In Atlanta, I first drove up Kennesaw Mountain where the South had a last ditch defense to prevent the Union from entering Atlanta in 1864.

Confederate cannon defending the top of Kennesaw Mountain (Photo by Hunner)

The Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta (Photo by Hunner)

I then went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. NHP. At the Ebenezer Baptist Church, at the Visitors’ Center, at his and Coretta Scott’s King grave, it evoked the spirit of the times and of King himself.

Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King's crypt at the King NHS (Photo by Hunner)

I then drove to the Gulf coast and over to Louisiana where I gave my first lecture on my travels at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The next day, I drove to Houston and presented a copy of the diary that my grandfather wrote while on the battleship the U.S.S. Texas when he was in the Navy in World War I. I got a great tour of the battleship by Albert who took me into some of the places that are not open to the general public. It was amazing to be in the exact places on the warship where my grandfather had been as young man 100 years ago. Thanks Albert and Sarah from the Texas.

Photo of the band on the U.S.S. Texas given to me during my visit.  My grandfather might be one of the clarinetists.  

After a pleasant visit with transplanted friends Mike and Nancy in Houston, I visited the LBJ NHP in Johnson City, Texas. I was smelling the barn by then and anxious to get home after three months on the road, but I had to stop at the LBJ Ranch. There, I joined a tour of the Texas White House led by Rangeer Charlotte. LBJ went to his ranch over seventy times in the five years he was president—a quarter of his time in office. His Great Society shaped the country that we live into today in minor and major ways. And then he went to war and divided the country. More about all of these places in future blogs.

So after three months on the road going east and south, after 19,000 miles and as many photos, and after numerous parks and historic sites, I am now back home. I will continue writing up the places that I visited where history actually happened in the coming weeks. I also will figure out how to turn these postings into a book. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Here’s an update on the NPS units damaged by Hurricane Matthew:

The worst hit is Fort Pulaski—it is closed until further notice due to the damage from Mathew. 

The others are opened with some damage or disruption of services. Fort Sumter reopened on Oct. 12 with no restrooms on the island. The ferries’ heads are available. 

Fort Matanzas in Florida is open but the ferry service is down due to damage to the dock.

The following units are open: Castillo de San Marcos NM, Wright Brothers NM at Kitty Hawk,  a