From Montgomery to Maycomb, it's all about justice

We planned to start the day with a visit to the Southern Poverty Law Center to pay one more visit to the Civil Rights Memorial and to add our names to the Wall of Tolerance inside the center.  Much smaller and less comprehensive than Birmingham's Civil Rights Institute, the SPLC was still a spot we wanted to visit.  Little did we realize that we'd wind up right smack in the middle of a press conference, where 38 plaintiffs, led by the SPLC, the ACLU, and the National Immigration Law Center, were announcing their lawsuit against Alabama's HB 56, the newest, and, according to those speaking yesterday, most "Draconian" of those similar anti-immigration laws that have passed in Utah, Georgia, and, of course, Arizona.

As the only tourists inside the building that morning, we were invited to sit in on the press conference.  At first we were uncertain, but Dana's curiosity and Daniel's enthusiasm convinced us we should go for it.  We were the only obvious "accidental tourists," as the gentleman sitting next to Maddie called us, which led Dana to lean over to whisper that he fell an awful lot like Forrest Gump. 

It was quite amazing to be sitting in the midst of reporters and Alabama citizens who are equally passionate about fighting what appears to them as being "reminiscent of the worst aspects of Alaba­ma's history in its pervasive and systematic targeting of a class of persons through pu­nitive state laws that seek to render every aspect of daily life more difficult and less equal."   Having just added our names to the Wall of Tolerance (an extremely cool, for lack of a more apt word, feature, where you read the pledge, electronically add your name, then see it appear before you instantly; Daniel was QUITE enamored with this part of the SPLC :), we couldn't have felt more proud to be witnessing Alabamians who refuse to sit by silently while they see an injustice that should be fought.

Since the press conference seriously set us back in our ambitious plan for the day, we took just a quick driving tour of the MLK highlights (the home he lived in and church he preached in while he lived in Montgomery and led the bus boycott)...

The family in front of King's house was the second group we'd seen that day (the first was waiting for a tour of the SPLC after the press conference ended) that was having a family reunion in Montgomery.  After seeing so many reunion t-shirts on cruise ships and amusement parks, I found it quite heartening to see a group of 30+ reunion t-shirt wearing adults and children waiting outside the Southern Poverty Law Center to share something far more profound than roller coasters or a midnight buffet.

As we said goodbye to Montgomery after noon, with a significant stop ahead and five + hours of driving before we got to our hotel in Tallahassee (where we would also lose an hour as we moved back from Central to Eastern time), we broke our golden rule of never dining in restaurants that we can dine in back home and took the kids to Subway.  They were ecstatic :)

Next stop - the Maycomb of my beloved To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee's hometown of Monroeville.  The drive to Lee's home was lovely, and the court house where her father, Amos Lee, practiced law, perfectly preserved.  However, everything else about Lee's childhood home has been horribly altered.  This is what stands in the spot of the home where Harper Lee grew up

The Faulk house, where Truman Capote grew up next door, is just an empty lot (but at least it has a marker indicating that he lived there).  Still, the layout is exactly as you read it in TKAM, where Dill comes to live with his aunt, becomes fast friends with Scout next door, and they can walk to the court house, which is just down the block (and near the jail, where Atticus protects Tom from an angry mob)... if you love the book as much as Maddie and I do, you, too, would relish a visit to Monroeville.  Apparently, around 35,000 people make this pilgrimage each year, which is why I find it even more astounding that the city (or state) doesn't try to recreate some of the neighborhood Lee recreated so famously in her novel.

Still, it's all about the court house, where Gregory Peck came for inspiration and the art director of the film came to take copious notes and drawings.  This is the setting we remember from the novel, and we know so well from the film.  And it is remarkable.

We sat in the jury box, in the pews downstairs, in the witness chair, at each attorney's desk, but not in the judge's seat, which is roped off, for some reason.   However, our favorite spot by far was in the balcony, where Calpurnia sat with Scout, Jem, and Dill, along with Tom Robinson's family and the rest of his black friends and neighbors.  While it might have been intended as a slight to make the black folks sit upstairs, it afforded them the best view in the courhouse.

As we left the courthouse, and Monroeville, both Dana and Daniel said how much they wanted to read To Kill a Mockingbird.   I think that says it all.

We finally rolled into Tallahassee at 8:00 p.m., having been directed by the GPS to take two little country roads we never would have found on our own.  The result was a drive through part of Florida I've never seen before, and couldn't have imagined if I tried.  Rolling hills, more horses and cows than houses, this is Floribama.  A quick stroll through our capital city and FSU (Go Gators!), and we're off to Orlando, for a week of amusement parks.   I promise not to write a blog about every roller coater!