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Our last official touristy stop was in Birmingham, Alabama! As a history teacher, particularly one that teaches Civil Rights, I really wanted to stop in a town with some real Civil Rights history. Montgomery and Selma weren't the right fit (or right in the timing of our drive) so we decided on Birmingham! My goals: Civil Rights. Nick's goals: chicken and waffles. Both of us were not disappointed!
Birmingham was a much bigger city than either of us had thought! We started off our visit at the 16th Street Baptist Church, where in 1963 "those four little girls" were killed in a senseless act of violence during the Civil Rights movement. This bombing is portrayed at the beginning of the major motion picture, Selma, and boy, does Hollywood have it wrong! It was fascinating to be in the church itself and to hear the story from those that have preserved the memory of those victims. This church has such a rich history, and continues to raise awareness of the true history of the event, as well as a full-functioning church today.
Afterwards, we walked across the street to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. If I only could take a field trip to this fantastic museum and have my students learn there! This place was incredible! The institute has a Greyhound bus, charred and burned like might have been during the Freedom Rides. It was chilling to see as testimonies of the Freedom Riders played in the background.
We were pretty hungry after all of this history, so we asked around for the best chicken and waffles in town. Nick was not disappointed. John's City Diner. Incredible. We were stuffed.
I had really wanted to tour a "good ole' Southern plantation" while we were in the South, but there were not any close to Birmingham. We did find one home that kinda sorta sounded like a plantation home, the Arlington Home and Gardens. This was not a plantation home. This visited was much shorter than we had anticipated. After touring old homes for most of our vacation, this particular house was not on my recommend list.
We went back to our Air B n B and took showers + a much needed nap, and then headed to the Birmingham LDS temple that night. It was closed by the time we got there (b/c we may or may not have overslept :D) but it was still so quiet and peaceful to visit the temple grounds. We knew that our summer road trip was coming to a close, and so this was a neat place to contemplate the many adventures that we had had with one another the past few months.
We ended our trip by staying with one of Nick's old friends, Jake Gittlemacher just outside of Dallas and then spending a night in Amarillo with my friend Jesse. How relieved we were to finally pull into our new apartment and settle in! I may or may not have gotten a little stir crazy during the drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix :D
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