Day 5: Montgomery AL

Day 5: Montgomery AL

THB top 20 Book of the Day: Ghettoside, A True Story of Murder in America, Jill Leovy. A very good explanation of why minorities have such a tough relationship with local police

Weather: Gorgeous in early morning, then toasty as the day warmed up into the low 80s

D'Road Cafe

D'Menu

Crazy eggs (note ketchup, mustard and mayo on top) and an arepa

Breakfast at D’Road Cafe, Sarah’s tip. Must be a good one because when we arrive a little after 8am, Sarah is eating at a table with two other friends. She’s thrilled we showed up and brought out Janet, a Venezuelan, to meet us. Hugs all around.

And, the food is pretty good! THB has “crazy” eggs (over easy on top of spinach and a bit of cheese and very thin slices of ham) and DB has eggs and brisket and black beans, accompanied by small thin rolls (arepas) and coffee with hot milk (no decaf, of course). We chat up the waiter, he’s from Montgomery and used to work for D’Road before moving and becoming a waiter at an Italian chain restaurant in Birmingham. Janet had called him to work this weekend so he is living with his mom for a few days while helping out (remember that private event at lunch yesterday?).

The "sweet" spot for a photo op; mother and daughter

Now for the big event: we visit the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, aka the Lynching Memorial, a very short walk from downtown (actually, so short it is in downtown). It’s big and powerful. with hanging, rusting steel rectangular boxes for almost every county where a lynching (or many lynchings) occurred. And a “yard” of duplicate boxes for the counties to reclaim and build their own memorial. Means that if you visit years from now and the duplicate is still there in the yard that the county did not claim it. Many of these boxes are from counties in the South. Over/under on the number claimed by 2023?

Sculpture by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, concrete

Life-size, fierce, the first up-close thing a visitor sees

On the wall opposite the sculpture are a series of "stories" of the beginning of the slave trade

The view as you turn towards the memorial after reading the stories

Examples of the hanging boxes. Needless to say, this strongly evokes the sense of walking among  hanging bodies

Each box has the county at the top and the names and dates of the lynched

There is a catchall box for states with a few lynchings (e.g., two in California, one in Minnesota, etc.)

Note the floor has dropped under the boxes, forcing the visitor to note even more the "hangings" and the bottoms of the boxes are also etched with the name of the county

More pics as we walk the circumference:

The view from one inside corner across the inner courtyard looking outward

"Reasons"...posted on an interior wall in no relationship to the boxes nearby, and very potent as we walk underneath the boxes

The last wall was a huge cascading fountain (soft sounds)

In the museum are jars and jars filled with dirt (by relatives of the lynched) from the lynching sites.

From the inside looking out

From the outside looking up

The "dupe" boxes, now looking just like coffins from a mass execution or natural disaster

For the most part in alphabetical order by state with some Southern states having many many boxes (i.e., counties in which one or more lynchings took place)

The only box with any adornment added by a visitor

A few states are represented entirely by just one box:

At the very end a box for multiple states

Another small sculpture as you on your way to the exit; it is by Dana King, a Bay Area artist (and ex-TV newscaster)  

By Hank Willis Thomas, "Raise Up"

THB and DB saw a knock-off of this work in the 21C Nashville. DB remembers the piece and believes it is by the same guy and Brian, the docent at 21C confirmed

The Nashville 21C version

Poem read by Elizabeth Alexander at the Opening Ceremony

Restrooms discreetly tucked away in a far corner of the memorial

It’s a short walk back to the hotel, a few minutes to help digest the memorial, and then on to the Legacy Museum, located directly behind the Hampton Inn. 

They do not allow pics inside the museum, so there is nothing here to help break up the blog text. The museum is dense with material (and people): the history of slavery and the slave trade (especially locally, where the EJI's headquarters are co-located with the slave warehouses), lots of interactive slides (where we learn that there were two lynchings in California, both in Kern County), about 100 jars of dirt collected from the sites of lynchings, several videos (some shown at the symposium), and personalized videos by current inmates of their treatment by the Alabama prison system (you lift up a phone and the video starts with the inmate talking to you).

A pic of a postcard of the jars of dirt collected by relatives from lynching sites 

Everything is self-initiated, there are no “guides” discussing the exhibits. For THB, on overload after the memorial, the butt brush factor and density of material dampened the emotional impact of the museum. 

A chain that believes in leaving no wall space uncovered (with kitsch); DB gets an fresh shucked oyster on the way to our table

Even for THB it is a lot of "grits" (aka, polenta)

For lunch, we decide on something easy: Winztler’s Oyster house across the street from the hotel. Shrimp and grits for THB, shrimp salad for DB, two Arnold Palmers, $44.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, time to rest up a bit, get some more blogging done for THB, and stay out of the hot sun for a while. Around 3 we go across the street to the Kress building to see the show in the gallery in the lobby. Nothing can top the level of the 21C museums; this show is a mix of media and artists that DB recognizes.

Theme of the show

Sydney A. Foster

Outside art by Bill Traylor, rediscovered after many years of obscurity

Painted 1939 - 42

Thornton Dial Sr, from 2002; thick application

Our just opened coffee stop of yesterday, today they have a paper sign

And pastries!! We have an early dinner, so skip tasting

More rest, then off in the car (really, our first car tourist driving of the trip) to tour the upscale neighbor near where we’re having dinner, at Vintage Year. For a mile or two to the north and east, we drive through nice neighborhoods. 

One self-proclaimed “Gorgeous” house on a corner was for sale: $540K for almost 5K square feet on a large lot. You can live large if you wanna sell off that over-priced dump you’re living in now. However, you’ll really be in a small enclave; the rest of the area around Montgomery is not that nice, and summer can be brutally hot and humid.

It's a choice: dine outside in pleasant high 70s temps and the street noise or in the a/c mid 60s with plenty of noise. We dine inside...in or out...life is full of small insignificant choices

The food at Vintage Year is very good (sorry, no pics, THB is pic'd out): we each have the house salad and DB has crab cakes and Brussel sprout appetizers for her main course and THB has perfectly grilled red grouper on a Cajun seafood stew with a scoop of dirty rice; with a glass of wine, a drink and a local brewski. The service is erratic (e.g., the salads arrive before the drinks, the promised hot bread comes well after several unprompted promises that it is on the way). Total with tip: $131.

Another life choice: chocolate turns out to be a winner

Dessert is a shared scoop of chocolate gelato at Café Louisa, a few doors down from the restaurant. Turns out Louisa sources the gelato from New York. Nice and dense in flavor and color, $4.

A guy in the Hampton Inn elevator; he has come back to see his favorite AA team, the Montgomery Biscuits

At 8:53, loud booms outside the hotel. Turns out to be fireworks night at the Montgomery Biscuits (AA) ballpark, two blocks away. We've got great seats for the show, lasts around 10 minutes.  We noticed a number of fans are staying at the Hampton Inn, traveling to see a minor league game. Just think if THB wanted to set a goal of seeing a game at every minor league park. Those twins would be teenagers by the time they saw him during the summer. Oh, wait, maybe the twins can come along!!

Shots from around town:

Better pic of pizza dinner spot from last night

Another building dedicated to Rosa Parks

One of two universities in downtown Montgomery

Based on the number of buildings, the state of Alabama is the #1 employer in town; this is one of the smaller buildings, others are huge with adjacent multi-level parking garages 

Jefferson Davis on the state capitol steps

A giant statue on the side of the capitol in honor of those who fought in the Civil War

Part of the large statue 

Note the state flag on this honorarium to the parking lot where blacks organized rides during the Montgomery bus boycott (which went on for over a year)