Some more pictures of Selma from the air

More pictures of Selma, this time from the air!

Day 6

Look where we didn't go in Chattanooga! Nashville!
Our 15th capitol building!The country music hall of fame in Nashville
At the XM booth with Jon!
Some XM admirers
More XM admirers
Bye to Jack for his flight to DC!

The last day! Today we woke up in Chattanooga and had breakfast (duh!). We stopped off on the way out of town at a drug store and the International Towing Museum was next door. We didn't wait for it to open...
We made our way to Nashville and dropped off a computer to a Vanderbilt student whose parents live in St. Louis. Jennifer then showed us where she went to Law School.
We then stopped at the Tennessee state capitol building (number 15!) and then to the Country Music Hall of Fame where we met Jon Anthony, who is a broadcaster for XM radio. They have a studio at the Hall of Fame, so we got to see the inside of the studio and meet Jon. Thanks Allen!
Next stop was the airport where we said goodby t0 Jack. Finally, a 5 hour drive home, ending in the rain.

Great trip!

Day 5++

Whitwell paper clip holocaust memorial
Parting thought at the Whitwell paper clip holocaust memorial

Day 5+

Rosa Parks Museum entrance
Sara Lynn at the civil rights committment wallHannah at the civil rights committment wall
Joe at the civil rights committment wall (Sorry Jack!)
Dan at the civil rights committment wall
Jennifer at the civil rights committment wall
Instructions at the Whitwell paper clip memorialWhitwell paper clip memorialWhitwell paper clip memorial

Day 5

Breakfast at the B and BOutside the B and BThe 14th Capitol Photo!Close up of the Alabama state capitol building.Inside the Alabama state capitol building looking up the staircase (see us?).


MLKs church in Montgomery

Civil Rights Memorial Center
Civil rights memorial
The day began when we woke up at the Red Bluff Cottage bed and breakfast in Montgomery. We packed and then went to the capital building to take our 14th capital photo. We went inside and walked around the capital building for a while and then looked at some of the civil rights sights in Montgomery. First, we walked by the Dexter Avenue church where Martin Luther King Jr was pastor, during the Montgomery bus boycott. The civil rights memorial was a block away from the car, so Jennifer decided to stay in the car after feeding the meter. Dan thought that the memorial was just a monument. Oops. It was a granite monument, with water flowing over a quote from Martin Luther King Jr and some of the important dates in the civil rights movement chiseled into the granite. In the back of the building was an entrance to a memorial museum which was opened only a year ago. The memorial museum remembers the civil rights victims as well as other civil rights movements across the world. They have a room where names are projected onto a huge wall and slowly cascade to the floor. The names are put in by visitors who promise to help stop segregation. We put in our names and lots of our family and friends and Dan took pictures. The pictures of our names are on the blog (except for Jack: Dan did not get a picture of it, so we put Joe's instead!).
After the memorial, we went to the Rosa Parks museum. They reinacted her refusal to move from her seat and subsequent arrest. They also had displays of the bus boycott that started with Rosa.
After the museum, we drove to the town of Whitwell, TN, where the Paper Clip memorial is. We had to go to the local police station to pick up a key and tape recording describing the paper clip project. The memorial is an actual cattle car that was used to carry Jews to the concentration camps during World War II and the students collected paper clips from all around the world and put 11 million into the car to represent the innocent victims of the Nazi regime, including 6 million Jews.
We then drove to Chattanooga and stayed in the Chattanoogan hotel. Before dinner, we went outside to make sure that at least 3 stars were in the sky and then we broke Passover the way they do in Israel!

Day 4++

Sister Ebo card at the Voting Rights Museum One of the displays at the Voting Rights MuseumAnother display at the Voting Rights MuseumThe Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma

The Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma with us!Under the bridge
The Depot in SelmaThe Brown Chapel in Selma

Day 4+

The Temple plaque
The Harmony ClubThe Ballroom of the Harmony Club

The Voting Rights Museum (taken from the Harmony Club window)The lobby of the Voting Rights MuseumThe kids listening to Joanne Bland, the director of the voting rights museum.
Hannah and Sara Lynn listening in rapt attention.

day 4

The welcome sign to Selma The Temple Mishkan Israel in Selma



Today we woke up, ate breakfast in Birmingham and Hannah and Sara Lynn swam in the hotel pool. We left around noon to drive to Selma. We thought that Selma would be dull because it is Sunday and Easter, so we did not expect much.
First, as we were driving into town, we noticed what looked like a Synagogue! It had been the Selma Synagogue for 100 years, but it was shut and no one was there.
We then drove to the downtown near the bridge and expected just to walk around and take some pictures. We parked in front of the Voting Rights museum (closed), and noticed across the street that there was a building that had a British, American, and Israeli flag flying from it! The building was called the "Harmony Club". The current owners of the building happened to be leaving as we walked over and we asked them why the Israeli flag was flying. They told us that they believed that Great Britain and Israel were the only countries that were consistently our allies. The Harmony Club was build as a Jewish gentleman's club that was active until the 1970s. The owner gave us a tour of the building, which was amazing! We put a picture of the ballroom on the post.
After the tour, we went to the bridge and took some pictures. We went back to the car and we expected to drive to Montgomery, but the director of the Voting Rights museum was entering the museum to provide a tour to a visiting group that was to arrive in 20 minutes, so she offered us to join the tour. The tour was amazing, she had been 8 years old when the march to Montgomery took place. She described their first walk that led to Bloody Sunday, where her sister was injured and then about the walk a week later. Hannah, Sara Lynn, and Jack were mesmorized as she described her childhood as a black girl growing up in Selma.
The museum also has a wall that has small cards written by people that were at the march. We found a card written by Sister Ebo, the nun that Rabbi Lipnick was charged with guarding during the marches. We put a photo of her card on this Blog.
After our amazing tour, we drove by the depot and Brown Chapel and then drove to Montgomery. We are staying in a nice bed and breakfast after eating a Chinese dinner (the only restaurant open on Sunday, Easter night!).

Day 3

Downtown Birmingham
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
16th Street Baptist Church
Statue for Children Protestors Water Cannon Statue
Guard Dog Attack Statue
Today we began the day by eating breakfast and going to the Birmingham Civil Rights Instutute. We stayed in the museum for about 2 hours. The museum went over the same history as the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, but it was nice to see it in a different way. Across the street is the 16th Street Baptist Church where the marchers in Birmingham would organize before protesting. It was also where four girls were killed when the KKK bombed the church. A park commemorates the protests, including the government's use of water cannons and attack dogs on the protestors (mostly students).

After being in Downtown Birmingham, we went back to the hotel and swam.

Tomorrow we go to Selma and Montgomery!