My favorite part of the trip was going to the 16th Street Baptist Church because of the intenseness that the story behind the church holds. Learning about the bombing of the church and the killing of the three little girls in class was sad but nothing compared to actually standing in the place that it happened. I went into the girls bathroom with my friends before the tour started and didn't think anything of it. Coming out of the tour and thinking back it made me so sad. The fact that these three young girls were simply going to the bathroom and spending time together turned into a deathly experience. This field trip opened my eyes to the horrors that African Americans felt in Birmingham, it was so bad that they even nicknamed it Bombingham. While sitting in the park and thinking how children my age were standing right here getting ready to march for their freedom is something I had trouble comprehending. Then staring down the street and envisioning a child being send down it by a water hose while on another corner a group was running from a ravenous dog. The things that these children had to go to and being in the place that it all happened sent chills through me multiple times during the trip.
The museum was also cool because of the visual affects that were all around everywhere you looked. From the photographs taken to the videos playing to the exhibits. It was also interesting to read personal things from people and how this time affected their lives. The thing that amazed me most from the museum was the artifacts that they had gathered from one of the girls of the church bombing. The exhibit consisted of the shoes she was wearing and a piece of brick that was found in her skull. To see this really gave me a sense of who she was and the terror that she had gone through.
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| Site of bombing at 16th Street Baptist Church |
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| Children being sprayed with firehose during the Children's March |
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