The Birmingham Civil Rights Museum

Prejudices are the chains forged by ignorance to keep men apart. Countess of Blessington

I will never forget the ominous signs above water fountains that were meant to separate the "whites" from the "coloreds" many years back. This offensive sorting was, unfortunately, a common site during my growing-up years in South Florida.

I can, however, speak personally about one man who refused make any differentiation between the bathrooms and water fountains...making them open to ALL people. I am proud to say that person was my Dad. After relocating the family from New York, he started managing a dry cleaning establishment in S. Florida. One of the first things that he did at this new job was to immediately remove these hateful signs. What an incredibly courageous act of defiance and humanity on his part.

The site of these divided water fountains faced us as Dave and I as we spent a part of our day today at the Civil Rights Museum here in Birmingham.

From there we walked through some of the history of the Civil Rights era that unfortunately had a lot of its story told right here in Alabama.

There was a statue of Rosa Parks sitting proudly in a seat in the front of the bus back in 1955. She bravely refused to give up her seat to a white gentleman...and the rest is history.

We listened to the moving words of Martin Luther King while viewing the actual bars from the cell that detained Dr. King in 1963. It is here that we heard the reading of his immortal "Letter from the Birmingham jail.

We strolled past authentic pews from the B'ham 16th Street Baptist Church where four little girls were killed during a racist bombing in 1963. This famous Church sits right across the street from the Museum.

There were also horrific images of the KKK and cross burnings and bombings. And who can forget the memories of the black marchers and protesters being tossed about by police-manned hoses and viciously barking dogs in Birmingham? These, too, were represented in the Museum. What an embarrassing time for this place that I call home.

But as one leaves this monument to the past, we are filled with hope for a better future for race relations. Great strides have been made here as we continue to move in a positive direction through education and understanding. Prejudice still exists in our country, but we are getting closer to the idea of acceptance and respect for our differences.

While at the Museum, I couldn't help but observe the sweet faces of the little black children that were viewing so much of this history for the very first time. Some of them were running around giggling- not quite comprehending what all of this meant. I am hopeful that they never, ever have to experience any abhorrently prejudiced events during their lifetime and instead grow up in a world of tolerance and acceptance.

"Accept me as I am-only then will we discover each other." from Fellini's 8 1/2