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Civil rights history
I was in Montgomery this past weekend for the winter meeting of the Alabama Press Association and a Friday tour focused on sites and people associated with civil rights. The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church sits just a block from the State Capitol and is famous as the church that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. pastored from 1954 until 1960. It would be historic even if Dr. King had not preached there. The church dates to 1877 and the old hall that was there was formerly a slave trader's pen, where sold slaves were held until their purchasers could pick them up. The site was purchased in 1879. Members picked up discarded street bricks from Dexter Avenue, which was being paved, and hauled them to the site and they are the church's foundation. I wondered how a black church came to be in such a prominent location, just a block from Alabama's capitol and on the prestigious Dexter Avenue. There was a black community, Centennial Hill, nearby but it was a few blocks away. Apparently there was some discord at the time the church was built. A letter to the Montgomery Daily Advertiser in 1885 questioned the "propriety and fitness" of the location. "Certainly our [white] citizens should not contribute to the building of a colored church on the Avenue. We suggest that every man approached for a contribution refuse to contribute a nickel until he finds out where the church is to be located." Despite such opposition, the church was built. The first worship service was held in the church's basement in 1885 and four years later, on Thanksgiving Day 1899, the first worship service was held in the upstairs sanctuary. On Dec. 2, 1955, black citizens met in the church's basement to organize the Montgomery bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white man. Later, Dr. King would be elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association and directed activities of the boycott from his basement office. That successful boycott was a linchpin in the civil rights struggle. A beautiful mural in the basement painted by church member John W. Feagin and others shows the history of the civil rights movement. The sanctuary is beautiful, with stained glass windows and old pews that wear their age beautifully. It is a serene place. Seven blocks away is the old church parsonage, now restored and open as a museum to reflect the time when Dr. King lived there in the mid to late 1950s. The house appears to date from around 1900 and was used by pastors of the church until about 10 years ago when current pastor Michael F. Thurman opted to buy a home. The house is a time capsule of the 1950s and would be worthy of being a museum even if the King family had not lived there. That era is as foreign to young adults and children as an 1800s log cabin is to most people. A bomb was thrown onto the porch of the house at the height of the bus boycott controversy and scars of the blast are still visible. The house contains some of the furniture actually used by the King family and the pastor's study is set up to look as though King has just gotten up from his desk. Back downtown, on Montgomery Street, is the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, a part of the Troy University Montgomery campus. The interpretive museum focuses on Parks and the bus boycott. There is a replica of the bus Parks was riding on the day she was arrested and a 1955 Chevrolet station wagon like the ones successfully used to transport people during the year-long boycott. An interactive children's museum looked interesting but we did not have time to visit it. On Thursday night we had a reception at the Civil Rights Memorial Center, operated by the Southern Poverty Law Center. It contains displays and in-depth information about the civil rights era. A focal point is the Civil Rights Memorial, located on the grounds and designed by Maya Lin, the architect who designed the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Downtown Montgomery is a booming place these days. Last Thursday, the new 12-story $150 million Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa held its grand opening. The hotel is connected to the Convention Center and includes an 1,800- seat theater designed for traveling Broadway shows and other entertainment. The Montgomery Biscuits baseball team plays in the nearby Riverwalk Stadium. The museums I described above as well as others, numerous restaurants from small sandwich shops to upscale restaurants abound. Montgomery has realized, as successful communities do, that its downtown is its heart and soul.
Jim Cox is editor and publisher of The Democrat.
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