Best Day So Far

Hey everyone! It is Miranda. Today I had a lot of fun. First we went to the capital of Alabama we had a tour. It was very very pretty in the dome of the capital. There were 11 huge murals. Then we walked past the first Confederate White House it was very cool to see were the confederacy started. Even if I don't believe in what they stood for, it was interesting to learn about the history and be able to say I saw it. Then we went to the civil rights memorial at southern poverty law center it was a very sad place and very moving. I am going to make sure that something like this is never to happen again. It was hard to see all the people that died in the movement. At the monument there were 40 people acknowledged on the sundial monument but many others were killed in the movement. It is so sad that people can just go out and kill people. But this problem is not gone. People are still getting hurt and killed and not being treated equal.
We went to Dexter Ave Baptist Church. It was the only church that Martin Luther King Jr had been the pastor. It is just down the road from the capital on Dexter Ave. I got to stand by the pulpit that M.L.K preached from. That was an amazing feeling. Then we drove to Selma. We went backwards on the route that they walked from Selma to Montgomery for the voting rights march. The 54 mile journey helped us to know how long they walked for the right to vote. Then we talked to Joanne Blackmon Bland and Lynda Blackmon Lowery. They are sisters and they marched on bloody Sunday and turnaround Tuesday and were put in jail nine times. They also marched in the Selma to Montgomery march. One of their stores they told us was about what happened to them on bloody Sunday like when they came across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. They were met by police men on foot and on horseback. They told them to turn around and they didn't so they shot off tear gas and started beating people. Lynda told how they got down on their knees and then a policeman grabbed Lynda in the front and back. She bit his arm and then he hit her across the face two times. Then she got up and ran as the police man punched her in the head. The whole time she ran back across the bridge then she saw her sister in some one's arms and she thought she had died because the way she looked so she started to cry even more. She still has the scars from being beaten on the bridge.They told us so many other stories too. It was so cool and I learned a lot of information. They were both very very funny. They are writing a book with all their stores in it. My mom bought the small version of the book for me so I could read more about her story.
They challenged our group to work hard to make our world a better place. They were very inspirational.
Miranda