Selma, Alabama

We are headed for Montgomery with a stop in Selma.  We got there about 12:30 and were hungry.  Our first stop was at the Selma Interpretative Center.  We asked the two park attendants - because they are now part of the national park scene, where we could have picnic lunch.  They said, across the street - which all looked like it was in the sun, or a couple of blocks away.  There was a Rotary bench very close to the center and another in the small park we found.  The chairs and tales were along the two side walls.  There was a net in the middle.  So we sat on the shaded side and ate our sandwiches.  Not on the Rotary bench which was in the sun.

Tables and chairs across the way in the sun.

Across the street this gallery - note the supporting columns below.

Another building across the street.  I liked the architecture.

At the corner I was going to take a picture of the Edmund Pettus Bridge when I noticed this women across the street.  She motioned for me to join her.  I crossed the street and noticed her shirt.  There was a young man on the other side of the corner trying to engage car drivers coming over the bridge.  Her shirt (and his) says, "vote or die".  And she was quite a character.  She had a beautiful singing voice.  A Pentecostal by persuasion, and she sang several snatches of gospel/freedom songs.  Since we had been at the Jackson Civil Rights museum, we knew some -but hers were more modern.  More about getting out the vote.  I asked her to give me some attitude in this photo.  She was so polite and wanting to teach us.  She moved to Selma from Chicago to be part of the movement to help get the vote for the blacks.

She was so funny, she put me in a position to take the best photo of the bridge.  and then to take several pictures of Michael taking pictures of the bridge.  I don't know what her real name is, but she has some pages on face book under Queen E Jackson.  I looked and she does promote various political candidates. 

We went into the center and watched the 25 minute video.  Also the few exhibits they had here.  Then we decided to walk across the famous bridge.

Views across the bridge.  I can't imagine what the black people who originally marched in 1965 were feeling.  Now it just looks pretty and the traffic is rushing by you 

The view on the way back.  Somewhere around the middle we saw a homeless black man pushing a shopping cart with all of his belongings across the street.  He saw us and started yelling at us that we were hypocrites.  We were whites and had no idea what they had suffered.  And the truth is I have no idea what they suffered.  I only know my own story.  And a lot of it was sad.  But I think for a lot of blacks it a was a heck of a lot worse.  With all the traveling we do I see a lot of suffering.  Our hope is that when we spend money in these countries, that it will help the country and its people.  I could tell the blacks in this country that they don't have it as bad as -xyz, but that is not my story - so it doesn't help. 

Knowing that there are so many places in the world where people are oppressed, it is difficult to comprehend the suffering.  I look back at my own ancestors who felt that they were oppressed multiple times.  Did they have to sacrifice?  Yes they did.  For the beliefs that they had. I started out as a poor farm girl.  I was lucky enough to go to college  I had enough courage to know that I wanted to travel.  I wanted to know what was out in the world.  With a college education I could travel to Mexico to teach school.  I learned from each experience good or bad.  I know that because I am white I had opportunities that others did not.  There is so much chance in when people are born and where they are born.  My chance fell in the middle to low range.  So I have been lucky.