May 6, 2008

May 6, 2008

Today has been mostly a driving day. From Vicksburg, MS we drove east across Mississippi to Alabama. There we stopped at the Tourist Info center for maps and recommendations. The clerk suggested seeing the bridge in Selma across the Alabama River. An hour and a half later we are taking a picture of it but not really knowing its significance. I must be a little too young and too much of a Yankee.

Our route from Selma to Montgomery is a National Historic Trail. Partway along we stop at the newly built Lowndes Voting Rights Interpretative Center where we learn the significance. In 1965 few blacks in this area were registered to vote. The minority whites kept a tight rein on political power with poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation. A particularly draconian sheriff caused events in Selma to boil over. When some demonstrators marching to the capital in Montgomery were stopped at the Selma bridge and beaten on “Bloody Sunday” the situation attracted worldwide attention. Supporters from all over the nation flooded in for protest marches and President Johnson pushed into law a nationwide voting rights bill. Easy registration didn’t immediately result in black political power. Some plantation owners in Lowndes County kicked black registrants off the land and into “tent cities”. The interpretative center is located at the site of one.

In some ways it is hard to believe that southerners practiced such despicable behavior when all we hear all day is ”yes sir, no sir”. It makes me feel really old.

We spend the night a few miles away at the Army Corp of Engineers’ Prairie Creek Campground. It is nice (and scenic) as are most of the public parks. We are finding most have water and electrical hookups available. When convenient public parks are now our first choice. That has not always been the case. Our first trial run at a state park in Wisconsin was a near disaster. Not only didn’t we have water and electricity, the water in the RV had gone “smelly” from lack of use. It was too much like camping everyday for Aimee (if you twisted my arm, me too). Now we know what we are doing and readily trade cable TV and Internet access for a beautiful environment.