Today, we started our day out in the Alabama State Capital Building. It was a beautiful building and we learned a lot about Alabama and some of the governors. One of the governors named George Wallace was the governor who was in office for 4 terms, and was actually who the protesters were marching to on Bloody Sunday. After that we went to Civil Rights Memorial, which is just a block away from the capital. This memorial honored 40 people who died in fighting for the Civil Rights. 5 of the 40 were woman (four of the woman were the girl who died in the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church bombing) and all of the ages of the forty ranged between 11 and 67. In the museum we watched a 15 minute video on the Movement and then we walked into the room the name-wall. I call it the name wall because there are all the names of the people who visited the Memorial, movie type screen. You would type your name in the touch screen board and then it would appear digitally on the movie screen. But you couldn't just sign you name, you had to agree with a statement saying that you will help fight against discrimination. We then toured the Dexter Baptist Church which was the only church the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at. A lot of the meetings where held here before they were going to do a big march or a boycott in Montgomery. The church is over 120 years old and it felt very historical. We then had lunch and continued our way to Selma, Alabama, which is where Bloody Sunday took place. For all of you who don't know what Bloody Sunday was, here is a brief summary: On Sunday January 30, 1972 people walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the right of African Americans to vote, but were met buy the police and attacked. The people who were marching knew that the police were waiting for them at the end of the bridge, but didn't know it was going to turn out like this. Our group walked across the bridge just like the people did in 1972. And we were privilaged to meet a lady and her sister who were 11 and 13 when they marched on Bloody Sunday. We also toured a museum on the voting rights for the African Americans. The sisters told amazing stories about the experiences of growing up where they did, and we also bought a booklet written by them which included their stories. It is one of the more fun days on the trip and also educational. -Emily

P.S. Some of you asked about the bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church. Well it was some of the members of the Ku Klux Klan who bombed the church. There isn't a lot of information about the people who bombed the church but one thing I learned is that the person who put the sticks of dynamite under the steps of the church wasn't put in jail until 2000! The bomb went of right by the window of the girls restroom in the basement; where the girls were getting ready for church in. If you have any more questions just ask, I'd be happy to try to answer any of them!!