Thursday, July 28, 2016

Civil Rights Trail and Old Cahawba

Last Friday, the boys and I took a trip to Selma to visit sites along the Civil Rights Trail.  
We stopped at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center in White Hall to learn the 
history of the Selma to Montgomery March.   White Hall is about half way between Montgomery and Selma.
We learned this was also the site where sharecroppers who were kicked off their land for voter registration activity set up a tent city.  
We drove into Selma and stopped at Brown Chapel AME church.  This church served as the headquarters for blacks during the voting rights movement. This church is also the starting point for Selma-to-Montgomery marchers.
We drove a little up the road into downtown Selma. 
Our last stop was the Edmund Pettus Bridge where 
Martin Luther King Jr. led the marchers toward voting rights. 
After some lunch, we drove to Old Cahawba.  Old Cahawba is Alabama's ghost town. 
It's the site of Alabama's first capitol from 1819-1826.. 
The town became a ghost town shortly after the civil war. 
This was an old well that is supposedly haunted!
This creepy building used to house slaves.  After the civil war it was a sold to a wealthy Alabama man who added the columns.  There was NO one visiting Old Cahawba when we were there, so it really was a ghost town.  This location was especially creepy!  
This spot was the location of the town's store.  The columns still stand.
This was the old one room school house.  
The boy's really enjoyed the ghost town.  
I would love to come back with bikes and tour the area again.

We passed an old Civil War cemetery on the way to Old Cahawba.  As we were heading home, I drove in to take a few pictures.  The spanish moss was gorgeous!  
We had a such a great historical day!  














Alabama Capitol

We made a trip to the Alabama Capitol last week.  
 I put two hours worth of money in the meter.  I may have overestimated!  
There were only four rooms we could actually see.  

I made them walk around the entire building.  It was extremely humid and HOT!  

Civil Rights Memorial Museum

The boys and I toured the Civil Rights Memorial Museum earlier this month.

 The creator of the Vietnam Memorial designed this memorial.  
The fountain chronicles the history of the civil rights movement.  
Inside the museum, they have a cool 360 degree display where you can see the locations of the civil rights movement in Montgomery.  
This was a really cool quick stop on a HOT day!