Not Just Another Stroll in the Park

 This is Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Looks peaceful doesn't it? The statue is of Martin Luther King Jr. He is facing the 16th Street Baptist Church.

Below are photographs taken in and around Kelly Ingram Park in 1963. Civil Rights demonstrators were attacked with fire hoses with power so strong it was said afterward it took the bark off trees. Police dogs, trained to attack were used on peaceful protesters.

Today, although the park is peaceful and especially beautiful with the fall colors, statues pierce the quiet and calm shouting out reminders of what took place when men, women, and children simply tried to exercise their first amendment rights. 

 This sculpture depicting the fire hoses, gives you the chills.

 This was hanging inside the church basement at the 16th Street Baptist Church where all the Sunday school classes are held. I saw it, just feet from where the explosion took place in 1963.  Handwritten on a piece of construction paper taped to the window of a classroom.