FROM CIVIL WAR TO CIVIL RIGHTS

Special to The Globe and Mail

By CINDA CHAVICH

(MONTGOMERY, Alabama) – It's evening in 1950s Montgomery, and I'm standing on the street watching history play out on a city bus. Behind the bus windows, 43-year-old Rosa Parks takes her seat after a long day of work in the first row of the bus's black section.

Through this full-scale diorama in the Rosa Parks Museum, I'm transported to a time, only a generation ago, when racism was a fact of life here. Montgomery was one of the last of the segregated cities of the American south, where the white population still believed it was its right to keep blacks out of restaurants and theatres, and force them to crowd into the back of city buses.

But even here, times were changing. On the day I'm revisiting, December 1, 1955, when a work-weary seamstress refused to give up her seat for a white passenger on a city bus, she set the American civil rights movement on the fast track.

Rosa Parks's simple but courageous act, so aptly reenacted on film at the museum, sets the scene for what happened next in this sedate southern city: a yearlong populist bus boycott that vaulted a young local preacher, Martin Luther King Jr., to the forefront of a political struggle.

It turned Parks into a hero. When she died in October, her funeral was an international event. And today, 50 years after her arrest, the civil rights movement has been memorialized in monuments and museums, and celebrated in local art. Alabama's history of non-violent civil disobedience is now one of the best reasons to visit.

Montgomery, historically known as the hub of Confederate power during the American Civil War, was also at the centre of a more contemporary war in the 1960s - one of the last bastions of institutionalized racial discrimination. It’s where the Ku Klux Clan and mob violence ruled. And it’s where students, religious leaders and civil rights workers from across the U.S. stood against a population determined to maintain its segregated system, many tortured, beaten and killed for daring to encourage blacks to register to vote or challenge other racist government policies.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Senate finally apologized for not stopping the mob violence and lynching unofficially sanctioned in the South for decades. And the murder trial of 80-year-old Edgar Killen, charged with the killings of three civil rights workers in 1964, was reopened in Mississippi.

It’s hard to imagine that such brutality once reigned in this pretty and now racially-integrated community. The impressive and pristine white capital building - where Gov. George Wallace once campaigned on the slogan "Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!" - still dominates the city centre. But integration, not segregation, is the new badge of honor in Alabama, and civil rights history has surpassed civil war history as a tourism draw.

As Dr. King said in 1963, “One day the South will recognize it’s real heroes.” And today it’s that personal heroism – in the face of some of the country’s most heinous acts of racial violence – that is being celebrated.

There’s a new national historic trail following the 54-mile route from Selma to Montgomery where, in 1965, state troopers attacked marchers when they gathered to demand voting rights for African Americans. And locals proudly point out the places where blacks, and whites, endured beatings, bombings and Klan killings in their fight for social justice.

Even the local Convention and Visitor Bureau has recognized the power of the city’s civil rights roots – branding the city with the slogan “Montgomery: Courageous, Visionary, Rebellious.”

The evidence of this important chapter in American history is everywhere – from the stunning Civil Rights Memorial carved with the names of the movement’s many martyrs to the tiny Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King advocated civil disobedience and peaceful protest from the pulpit. Many of the monuments, museums and historical markers recall tragedies, and while not everyone wants to remember Alabama’s dark days, time has evidently healed past wounds, leaving Montgomery with a legacy of pride in the rights which were eventually won here.

Where King led the non-violent march that ended in a terrible civilian massacre known as Bloody Sunday, there is the legacy of the legislation that finally guaranteed all black Americans the vote.

Where some of the country’s most horrific poverty forced rural women to craft quilts from scraps to survive, there is now a famous quilting collective creating stunning textiles that are touring the world’s top art museums.

And on the very corner where Rosa Parks was pulled from a city bus by police for refusing to give up her seat to a white commuter, there is an interactive museum depicting how one courageous woman became the poster child for a national political movement.

The road to freedom, democracy and integration was obviously a painful one for the black community in Alabama, but a trip to Montgomery today is both emotional and inspirational. It’s a place to remember that even when there are incredible wrongs to right, the power of collective courage and conviction can truly overcome.

Like designer Maya Lin says of her circular granite sculpture at the centre of Montgomery’s Memorial plaza: “This is not a monument to suffering; it is a memorial of hope.”

CELEBRATING THE CIVIL RIGHTS LEGACY IN MUSEUMS, LITERATURE AND ART:

HISTORY: THE ROSA PARKS MUSEUM

In the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, it’s easy to feel like a bystander on a Montgomery street on Dec. 1, 1955. After a short film to set the scene, you step into an evening streetscape, dominated by a full-sized replica of a vintage city bus. The story of Parks’ passive resistance unfolds on film behind the bus windows in real time, as she takes her seat after a long day of work in the first row of the “black section”. As more passengers board the bus and the “white only” rows are filled, the driver angrily confronts Parks who quietly refuses to move, even in the face of her arrest by local police.

The post-arrest portion of the museum details the events that followed in Montgomery, with video clips and interactive displays. With a solid test case like Parks’, lawyers for the NAACP felt the time was right to challenge Montgomery’s segregation laws in court and rally the black community. The ensuing bus boycott, led by local pastor Martin Luther King Jr., lasted more than a year.

But, as the museum so aptly illustrates with film of Klansmen burning crosses and news reports of bombings and shootings, the system that kept blacks in the back of buses and away from white-only areas in restaurants and theatres would not end easily.

“Segregation is an institution of the South that we do not intend to see disturbed,” rails then mayor William Gayle in a grainy black and white news reel that plays at the push of a button in this emotionally-moving museum.

The Montgomery Bus Boycott became a rallying point for the civil rights movement and pushed King onto the national stage. From this museum, its easy to explore the topic further, at the African American Cultural Centre at Alabama State University (www.lib.alasu.edu/natctr/natctr.htm) or the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (www.dexterkingmemorial.org). A new Civil Rights Memorial Centre opened in downtown Montgomery in October, dedicated to “inspire others to take a public stand for justice.” (www.splcenter.org)

LITERATURE: MOCKINGBIRD MEMORIES

A classic introduction to the injustices that occurred in the segregated South is Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.

And in nearby Monroeville, Alabama, where Lee grew up and set her famed morality tale, a walk through the historic courthouse at the centre of this small town brings the story sharply to life.

Loosely based on her own childhood here – where her father was the local lawyer and her best friend was a young Truman Capote – the story follows a black man, unfairly charged with the rape of a white woman, and the consequences for the white lawyer who defends him.

And like a modern-day Mayberry – complete with old-fashioned storefronts encircling the old court house square – Monroeville is a classic small southern town. It’s easy to squint and imagine what it might have been like to live here in the 1960s, when Gregory Peck came to town to research his role as lawyer Atticus Finch for the Academy Award-winning film. Locals still point to the places “Greg” stayed, dined and strolled as if it were yesterday.

The film’s main set, recreated on a Hollywood back lot, was an exact replica of the 1903 Monroeville courthouse. It’s all helped turn Monroeville into a pilgrimage destination for both literary buffs and film fans. Restored to its early grandeur, The Old Monroe County Course House Museum is now Mockingbird central and may be the most famous courthouse in America. Lee’s life is chronicled through displays and videotaped interviews with locals, and in the original court chambers, the town’s amateur Mockingbird Players stage their annual spring stage production of the play (www.tokillamockingbird.com).

There’s also a “Monroeville in the 1930s” walking tour through town, pointing Mockingbird fans to other sites connected with the book. You can head past the former site of the Wee Diner – where Peck “ate the best steaks in town and sampled sweet tea” – or stop for lunch at the Courthouse Café in across the square. The courthouse gift store sells hard cover copies of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee’s first and only novel, along with Truman Capote’s collected works, stories which also draw a cast of colourful characters from his southern home town.

Released, as it was in 1962, when some of the bloodiest civil rights battles were raging in this very region, To Kill a Mockingbird was an important and controversial story to tell then, but remains equally relevant today. And seen today, in this bucolic southern town, it’s both a touching coming of age story and a chilling snapshot of less tolerant times.

ART: QUILTING WITH CONSCIENCE

Selma, the site of some of the bloodiest Civil Rights battles in the south, is now known as a hotbed for African American folk art, namely for the colourful quilts of Gee’s Bend.

Discovered recently by art historians and now touring some of the country’s top art galleries, these unique textiles combine bold colours and simple geometric designs in quilts created from scraps of recycled clothing and other cast-off cloth. The New York Times art critic called them “some of the most miraculous works of modern art that America has produced,” and they are now the subject of university research and popular home décor lines.

It’s ironic that these homespun blankets - created as they were by some of the poorest women in one of the poorest settlements in the south - are now fetching up to $4,000 (US) apiece. Gee’s Bend, tucked into deep bend of the Alabama River near Selma, is a place where generations of African American tenant farmers, many descendents of cotton plantation slaves, have long been isolated by their geography and their poverty.

But like their mothers before them, the women of Gee’s Bend were thrifty and practical, keeping their families warm under quilts stitched from scraps faded denim and corduroy from old work cloths, strips of feed sacks and remnants of donated fabric. They built their handmade blankets without the usual patterns, cobbling together what they had with their own unique aesthetic.

Today the quilts of Gee’s Bend have risen far beyond those humble beginnings, collected by art historian William Arnett and critically acclaimed across the country as important pieces of American folk art. Quilting is interwoven with the history of slavery in the south – escaping slaves were directed to safe houses (and warned of dangers) by reading the simple codes stitched into quilts that were hung out on lines or across porch railings.

And Gee’s Bend quilters have long been politically active. Early abolitionists purchased quilts from Gee’s Bend and, in the 1960s, Gee’s Bend quilters formed the Freedom Quilting Bee to support their impoverished community and raise money for the civil rights movement. In fact, the movement was so strong among the residents of this rural area, local authorities cancelled their ferry service to keep them away from rallies and protests.

With their broad swathes of colour and bold geometric patterns, the quilts created by this small group of rural residents (now formally known as the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective) have a drama that equals the best abstract canvasses. First exhibited in 2002 by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas, the 70 quilts created between the 1920s and 1990s have since traveled to major galleries like the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC and at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. They will be shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta Georgia between March 25, and June 18, 2006 and will return to Houston for a second major exhibition later in the year.

The unusual patterns and irregular rhythms of these simply-pieced textiles are unique to this small enclave of quilters yet somehow universally appealing. Academics have studied them and Alabama’s Auburn University is working with teachers to develop a curriculum around the quilts.

The quilts are now marketed through the Gee’s Bend Quilters Collective website (www.quiltsofgeesbend.com), with reproductions of some quilts now available through the U.S. home décor and clothing chain, Anthropologie. A partnership recently forged with Kathy Ireland Worldwide, will also see the graphic Gee’s Bend designs featured in a line of home products.

IF YOU GO:

GETTING THERE

Downtown Montgomery is a 21/2-hour drive from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

WHERE TO STAY

Red Bluff Cottage: 551 Clay St., Montgomery; 1-888-551-2529; www.redbluffcottage.com. This upscale bed and breakfast offers a view of the city's State Capitol from the porch swing on the veranda.

WHAT TO DO

Rosa Parks Library and Museum: 251 Montgomery Street, Montgomery; 334-241-8661; http://montgomery.troy.edu/museum.

Civil Rights Memorial Center: 400 Washington Ave., Montgomery; 334-956-8200; www.splcenter.org/crm/visitcrmc.jsp.

High Museum of Art: 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta; 404-733-4400; www.high.org.

WHERE TO EAT

Plan to immerse yourself in southern hospitality, as Alabama is also celebrating its culinary culture this year with The Year of Alabama Food. Whether it’s creamy cheese grits for breakfast or contemporary takes on southern classics at The Olive Room, there’s a lot to taste. The Montgomery Curb Market (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) features everything from boiled peanuts and home-baked red velvet cakes to pickled okra. 1004 Madison Ave.; 334-263-6445.

MORE INFORMATION

Montgomery Convention and Visitor Bureau: www.visitingmontgomery.com.

(a version of this feature appeared in the Globe and Mail newspaper)

©Cinda Chavich

www.tastereport.com