Montgomery Day 2 of 2
Dory:
We got up and we used the RV to drive to the Legacy Museum.
Photo by Stephanie. Photography within the exhibit was not allowed.
I thought the museum was interesting because it had wave effects. The wave effects drew attention to the fact that enslaved people came here from the shores of Africa and many of them drowned.
Photo by Stephanie. “History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” —Maya Angelou
Then we went to the National Peace and Justice Museum to go and see bricks hanging.
Photo by Vivian.
On each brick there were names of persons who were lynched in each county. More than 4000 were killed by lynching between 1877-1950.
Photo by Vivian.
Then we went to a Starbucks for a change and watched videos with their wifi. Then we went home.
Vivian:
Hi friends! (And fam!) Today was reasonably slow-paced, we had a breakfast of cheese and crackers and got to driving. We drove to The Legacy Museum, unfortunately we were not able to take pictures because the people working at the museum didn’t allow it. I think we can describe it ok though. Anyway, when we entered we were subjected to bag searches, it went peacefully and we went to the first exhibit. There were these really cool sculptures made by an artist in Africa, and we moved on to an exhibit with a lot of video screens.
Photo by Stephanie. A memorial to lynching outside the Legacy Museum.
Photo by Stephanie. These busts were made by the same artist whom Vivian referenced above. There were many more in the museum in the room after the wave effects that Dory mentioned. They were there to memorialize the kidnapped Africans who were thrown overboard during the Middle Passage.
In the next room there were very interestingly spooky holding-pen-cell things that had holograms projected by cameras on the floor, the holograms were all Black and they told their stories about what it was like to be treated less than human. After all the exhibits we were feeling both hungry and tired because all the exhibits had little to no benches, so we went back to the RV which was parked in the parking lot and ate some food. Soon after we left the RV we boarded the shuttle that would take us to The Peace And Justice Memorial.
Photo by Vivian.
When we got there we entered the memorial, walked around, found the McLennan county’s history with the Lynching of several Black men, women, and children.
Photo by Stephanie. Jesse Washington was lynched in downtown Waco.
Photo by Vivian. Inside the Legacy Museum they had a whole wall of jars filled with soil from the sites where Black people were lynched. There we found the one with Jesse Washington’s soil.
Photo by Vivian. This section of the memorial was devoted to replicas of plaques memorializing lynchings in the locations where they occurred. We did not find one for McLennan County.
It was, to say the least, disturbing. I remember thinking, back at the museum, “I have no right to be here, but I need to learn this stuff.” That phrase came at me again and I steeled my nerves.
Photo by Vivian.
After we left the memorial we got on the shuttle that would take us back to the museum, and walked back to the RV to plan the rest of the day. We decided to go to the closest Internet cafe that just so happened to be a Starbucks. When we got there me and mom ordered a cold drink each because it was hot outside and there was little air conditioning. Mom got an iced coffee and I got a…wait for it… DRAGON DRINK. I didn’t even know that that existed! For those who don’t know, a dragon drink is a purple-pink iced drink with coconut milk and dragon fruit. Anyway, after an hour and a half we left to drive back to our RV park.
Photo by Vivian. We thought the tree at our RV park in Montgomery was particularly nice.