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Montgomery to Selma

Nicole J. Burton

Heavy rain dampened my enthusiasm to walk about Montgomery but before leaving I visited the Freedom Rides Museum in the old Greyhound Bus Station. That's where the Freedom Riders were attacked by a mob while police looked on in May 1961. It's a beautiful museum saved from the wrecking ball by the Alabama Historical Commission. As it poured, I drove west forty miles to Selma and over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the March to Montgomery began. What a feeling. At the Selma Interpretative Center, I watched videos of marchers reflecting on their experiences then went upstairs for the rest of the exhibit and lo and behold, there was Linda Lowery, the woman in the video, answering a young visitor's questions. Linda had turned 15 the second day of the four-day march and she said one of the happiest days of her life was when she voted for the first time at age 21. As I'd done in Montgomery, I donated Joy Jones' terrific book for teenagers, Fearless Public Speaking, and some of my books, to the permanent collection of the city library. I thought Jim Landry would be happy to know that Memory Music had made it to Selma.


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