Westerners Reflect on visiting Civil Rights Memorials and Museums in Montgomery, AL

Nine Westerners and a Friend of Western traveled to historic Montgomery, AL February 15-17, 2020. We visited six sites including the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

Three of the group will reflect on how the various experiences of the weekend touched and moved each of them.

The trip was a pilgrimage, a journey to truly understanding the magnitude of the horrid treatment endured by African Americans. It was a time to see how courage manifested itself in civil rights leaders and every day people. History became real and it was impossible not to feel a range of emotions, such as sadness, empathy, anger, and outrage.

At the time of the trip, many of us were reading theologian James Cone’s book The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Early in the book, using the words of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Cone calls out liberalism for lacking the “spirit of enthusiasm”, for being “too intellectual”, and showing too little emotion to be a force for change in history. Visiting Montgomery allowed us to see/feel/hear/ and imagine the depth of wounds inflicted by the white community.

This Sunday, January 17 at 11:00 am come to the Free Inquiry class to hear members of Western’s Antiracism Group reflect on their pilgrimage to Montgomery, come with questions, and join an important discussion about racism in America.

Here is the website for the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.  https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial