A Lesson From Birmingham
I learned a lot from my Girl Meets City: Birmingham trip, and I can’t wait to share it all with y’all!
But one of the biggest things I got out of it was visiting the Civil Rights District.
We didn’t even have time to go in the museum, so I made the executive decision to film in the park.
When you see the results of the film, you will see me in front of Kelly Ingram Park with a smile- speaking on it’s history.
What you won’t see, unless we work it in somehow, is that it took me several takes to get through it. I kept stumbling over my words.
The 16th Street Baptist Church was behind us, we passed it on the way to park. A place I had only seen in history books. As many times as my parents have brought me to Birmingham to see family, we had never been here.
Do you ever think of the four little girls who were killed there? I do.
Do you ever realize that the youngest ones to fight in the struggle for Civil Rights were only seven or eight years ago?
The Children’s Crusade took place in this park in 1963.
Some of them were only seven or eight. My son is seven years old now. My daughter is six.
I’ve tried to talk to my kids about the Civil Rights Movement and I feel like I fail every single time.
My kids are mostly concerned with coloring, and school, and if they can watch on movie on my iPad.
I try to grasp the bravery of the parents who sent their children to fight.
I try to grasp the bravery of the children, and I wonder how much they understood.
I watch the politics of today, and regardless of who you are voting for- and even I have been guilty of this- can’t you see the hate that is happening around us?
The problem isn’t Donald Trump. Or Cruz. Or Bernie Sanders. Or Hillary.
It’s the latent bigotry that so many people still feel.
It’s being afraid to talk to someone we don’t know, or who we disaree with.
I’m going to try to be better about this. I struggle between saying that sometimes some forms of hate can only be fought in the strongest way possible. And I don’t know when it’s only appropriate to listen and extend and forgiving hand.
I also don’t want to be the white person that Dr. King spoke of in Letter From a Birmingham Jail. I don’t want to be the white moderate who allows things to happen that are unjust. That are wrong.
What I feel I can safely say is that where we are today as a nation scares me. I am deeply afraid we are moving backwards.
All we have to do is look to Birmingham in 1963. And look at where we are today.
The title of the sermon that was to be given on September 15th, 1963, when four little girl died in a bombing was to be called “A Love That Forgives”.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
