EXPLORING SOUTHERN HISTORY

May 5, 2006

The next morning we continued east, crossing the state line into Alabama.  We stopped at another nice Welcome Center and gathered information about Alabama points of interest and the Civil Rights Museum Trail. 

First we decided we should tour an antebellum mansion, so I spotted one on the map and we veered north, off our course, to Greensboro to visit Magnolia Grove.  Magnolia Grove is really more of a town house than a true plantation, but it does have the Grecian pillars and Greek Revival architecture.  The owners had their plantations about 20 miles south.

The nice thing about this mansion is that it still has many of the original furnishings and an interesting story to go with it.  The owner of the house was considered a Spanish American War hero and his family donated the house to the state of Alabama in his memory.  The last surviving family member lived there until she passed away in 1978.

After touring the mansion we headed for Marion, Alabama, the town where the first Confederate flag was sewn up.  When we got to Marion we found a sleepy and unremarkable little southern town.  We ate a picnic lunch on the lawn at the Chamber of Commerce, which is in the old train station, and then drove on to Selma, Alabama to start the Alabama Civil Rights Museum Trail.  We had picked up a brochure about this self-guided tour through Selma, Montgomery, Tuskegee and Birmingham, and wanted to have the experience.

When we arrived in Selma things seemed a bit slow.  We drove past the church where Martin Luther King preached, then along a somewhat blighted street to find the Voting Rights Museum.  After parking the car we checked out the Edmund Pettus Bridge, one of the most recognized symbols of the Civil Rights Movement, which was the start of the famous march from Selma to Montgomery. The Voting Rights Museum was dark and locked even though we were there during the posted hours.

On we went to Montgomery, the state capitol.  We took a driving tour of the city, passing by the Rosa Parks Museum, the King Memorial Baptist Church, the Civil Rights Memorialand then stopped to tour the state capitol building and Jefferson Davis’ mansion (the first White House of the Confederacy). 

After leaving Montgomery we went on to Tuskegee, where we stopped by the Tuskegee Airfield, home of the famous Tuskegee Airmen, the WWII black flying squadron.  In Tuskegee we also went to the Tuskegee Institute and learned about Booker T. Washington and George Washington Carver.

Now, this is an interesting story!  Booker T. Washington, a 6 year old slave when the Civil War broke out, created the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in 1881.  His realistic philosophy defined his three goals in establishing the school:  educate teachers who could then spread out to the plantation districts and educate other black people, develop craft and occupational skills to equip the students for jobs in trade and agriculture, and instill high moral character and cleanliness.  It was total immersion training to help people who had been subjected to sub-standard lifestyles learn how to integrate into the mainstream.  The original three goals are still applicable and very admirable in my view.

Washington was very successful, starting with a small $2000 government grant to pay teachers.  His Institute has flourished and continues today.

George Washington Carver, who worked his way through college and earned a master’s degree in agriculture, was well on his way to a promising scientific career.  Instead of pursuing research in botany and bacteriology, he accepted Booker T. Washington’s invitation to head up the Dept. of Agriculture at the Tuskegee Institute and contributed greatly to the success of the college.