If you ever get the chance, visit the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. I would have named it the “Montgomery Bus Boycott Museum,” but that’s me.
It’s one of those things you remember – vaguely, maybe – from your U.S. history class. It started Dec. 1, 1955 with Rosa Parks refusing to get up and give her seat to a white man, and ended 13 months later with the Supreme Court ruling that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional.
But those 13 months in between were pretty…insane. And to the credit of the museum – and the city of Montgomery – the story is told without flinching.
Here’s one of the details I can’t seem to shake: Among other insults and threats, hecklers threw urine on the peaceful boycotters.
Think about that for a second. (Even though you’d rather not.) Before you can throw urine on someone, you have to a.) collect it and b.) transport it to the target site. Who does that?
Not far from the Rosa Parks museum is the old greyhound station. In 1960, the Supreme Court outlawed segregation on interstate buses as well, but in many places, the ruling was ignored. The Freedom Riders set out to change that.
What I hadn’t known was that when they arrived in Birmingham, Alabama, the violence was so intense, the protest was halted. A group of kids – 19, 20 & 21—took it upon themselves (against the admonishments of President Kennedy) to continue the protest. They got on a greyhound in Birmingham, and were met with brutality in Montgomery. The police were called, and showed up oh, about an hour, after violence broke out. Kennedy sent in the national guard and national attention was finally riveted on the protest.
Montgomery is a lovely city, stately without pretention. I appreciate it being right out there with the darker chapters in its past. I like the park down by the river. The uber-clean streets. The sign on Martin Luther King’s church that says no self-tours on Sundays, but you’re welcome to come and worship with us.
I’m sure I would fade into a puddle of misery during the hot and humid summers, but on a blue-sky November day, it was the perfect place for me.
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