Following a Righteous Journey From the Past Into the Future

By Gloria Rodríguez

March 19, 2004

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - As director of the Rosa Parks Library and Museum in Montgomery, Georgette Norman is immersed in the history of desegregation. Pictures of Parks, a woman whose quiet determination and demand for justice changed the lives of blacks, stare at her. For Norman, who was born and raised in Montgomery, the pictures and museum displays also reflect her own journey through the civil rights movement.

She remembers hearing the bombs that went off in the homes of two civil rights activists near her house when she was nine years old.

"They sounded like fire crackers," she said.

The streets of her hometown crowded with thousands of blacks who refused to ride the city buses for 13 months. Her parents, who both had cars, picked up other blacks who were walking and needed a ride.

"The thing brought everyone together," Norman said. "It was an inter-generational type of thing."

The museum helped give students of the Columbia University Covering Religion class a sense of the time that is so vivid in Norman's mind. The tour started with a short documentary about the movement on three big screens. A poster with the words

"White Waiting Room" hung by the screens.

After being told that Parks was going to catch the bus on Dec. 1, 1955, two large doors opened and a tour guide walked in and said, "Come on, let's go catch the bus." Television screens in the windows of a large bus recreated Parks' famous moment. The screens showed Parks' refusal to give up her seat to a white person and her eventual arrest. More exhibits documented the progression of the movement and its impact.

After the tour, the students headed to the Guest House Inn. They walked down the stairs of the hotel and into a ballroom. Inside, the tables were set to the side and about three men stood barefoot on sheets. They prayed and kneeled before Allah. Since the Muslim Center of Montgomery is being renovated, its members gather in the hotel each Friday for noon or juma prayers. Imam Yusuf Hasan led the modest congregation of W. D. Mohammad followers by reading the Koran and speaking in English. One man stood up and chanted at
certain points.

More members entered as the service continued. One man who is in the air force was dressed in a camouflaged uniform and took off his boots before he joined the other men. A woman who wore a long dress and a head veil went in and stood on a sheet behind the men.

A vacuum hummed loudly in the hallway.   

Diane Sabree, who works for the state's Department of Human Resources, was the only woman member of the congregation in attendance. She said she goes to the service during her lunch break every Friday. Sabree said she is not bothered by worshipping in a hotel or having noise distractions.

"When you say your prayers, you're supposed to have your mind on Allah," she said.

After the service, worshippers gave Hasan money to help pay for the hotel. They hope to be praying in their own center in a couple of months.

Most of the Covering Religion class gathered around the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala. The memorial's black granite table represents the names of some of those who died during the civil rights movement as well as key events of the period. Photo: Chris Karmiol

The students then headed to the Civil Rights Memorial outside the Southern Law Poverty Center. The words engraved on the black granite monument were illuminated by the bright Alabama sun. In simple language, the words document key moments of the civil rights movement and give the names of 40 men and women who lost their lives in the struggle.

Water flows over the words on the table-shaped monument, as it does over the granite wall behind, resembling a small waterfall.

On the wall is a phrase Martin Luther King Jr. often recited in his speeches: "Until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream." Although it is etched in words, the message is loud, resonating above the sound of the falling water.            

The memorial, which was designed by architect Maya Lin, is reminiscent of Lin's other famous work: the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial in Washington. Both are made of black granite that shines with the sun and both inspire reflection.
Some students moved their hands in the water. Others quietly read the chronological timeline of important civil rights events.

Soon, representatives of the Southern Poverty Law Center went outside to speak to the students. Speaking over the soothing sound of the waters flowing from the memorial, the representatives reminded the students that the struggle for tolerance is far from over.

The center periodically releases data listing reported hate crimes and hate groups across the United States. While the nation has come a long way in terms of desegregation, there is still a large number of hate crimes, especially against gay, lesbian and transgendered individuals, the representatives said. While some are calling gays' struggles to be recognized in legal marriages the next civil rights movement, Brian Willoughby, a senior writer and editor for the organization's Web site, said it will be interesting to see how black churches, which were so instrumental in the civil rights movement, deal with the issue.

"Allies of some issues aren't necessarily allies of another issue," Willoughby said.

After a day of studying the history of the civil rights movement, the students got in a bus and went to Birmingham, where four black girls were killed in a church bombing in 1963. At sundown, some students went to a synagogue to help the local congregation welcome the Sabbath.

For many who entered the Sheraton hotel, where the group was staying, it was as though they had discovered a gold mine. Hundreds of members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People milled around the hotel for their convention. For the curious journalists, the possibilities were bright. There was the chance of meeting people involved in the civil rights movement, of listening to how desegregation changed somebody's life firsthand, and of learning about what still needs to be done today.