6/27/00
Montgomery, Alabama
Mileage 92.2 miles
Max. 26.3 mph
Avg. 13.56 mph

A long dangerous day this one! From Selma on it was cat and mouse with the trucks on shoulderless road. I was the mouse.

About 15 miles from Montgomery at around 5:00 the pace of traffic just zoomed. I almost lost my nerve. It takes a certain amount of gumption or foolishness to enjoin, to participate from a subordinate position when the costs of losing are high. I was glad to at last come to the loop around Montgomery proper because even though the traffic was fast and furious at least the shoulder provided a space that was legitimately mine.

But the danger that I endured by choice today was nothing compared to that of the civil rights marchers who took to the same road in March of 1965. In Selma, all that marks the beginning of the march is one of those cast iron plaques at the bottom of the bridge that crosses the Alabama River. That is where the first two marches were disrupted. The third try, begun several weeks after the first two, was successful.

Two thirds of the way to Montgomery I came to the memorial to Viola Liuozzo, one of the two civil rights workers killed on the march. There is no sign pointing to the memorial, which is a 20' x 20' weedy plot with a granite slab surrounded by a 6' high wrought iron fence.

Along the way, three signs--those brown national park ones--point out the camps where marchers stayed. Beyond that the only signs marking the trail are the no litter posters that say, "Keep our trail clean."

Interestingly the highway is a national memorial highway, and it is Alabama's Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway. Frankly, I wondered how it was possible that the Davis signs are still in place.

I saw an American flag posted out where there were no houses visible. I took it as an act of defiance here where the truckers post the Rebel Flag on their radiators.

I couldn't help but feel that in going to Selma, which evokes such strong emotion in civil rights advocates and opponents as well, was a journey into the heart of darkness so to speak. That's not to say there are not good people in Selma or to ignore that there is more to the city than just its role in the civil rights movement. Nonetheless, that's the lens I was looking through, and of course we only see what we are looking for.