Day 15 - Helen

Montgomery, Alabama

We started the day at the Southern Poverty Law Center, where we stood around the Civil Rights Memorial, a beautiful black marble sculpture, round, with the names of important people who had died or events during the civil rights movement. Water circulated over the sculpture, running down the sides to the base. We stood in a circle, running our fingers through the water as we walked around it. We heard three speakers at the center, which tracks hate groups. I think the most shocking thing we learned was the abundance and horrific actions of hate groups. We were given magazines with a map of all the hate groups in the U.S., what type they are, and how many are in each state. We were all surprised that Missouri has one of the highest numbers of all the states.

The Foundation for Moral Law made almost everyone mad. First they stated that although minorities have rights that cannot be taken away, the majority has power over them. Then they explained how religious people are moral because they are taught moral values more than people who are not religious. As the executive director explained, “religion plays a very important role in society because it makes people responsible.” If anyone wasn’t already a little irritated, he seemed to suggest that religion should be a part of the government because it is a part of the people and makes up society, along with saving people eternally. He gave an example of some of the work the foundation does by explaining a case where a woman was not allowed to say “have a blessed day” in her emails because of religion in the workplace, and they believed she should be able to. Karen warned us that the foundation would anger us. Being a fairly calm person, I did not expect to be very angry. However, after he explained his position on gay rights, I was fuming. First he explained how marriage between gay people is unnatural and therefore would be a special right. Then he related gay marriage to polygamy. Being a gay rights activist, I almost shut down at that moment. However, I managed to keep my mind open throughout the rest of the presentation. I realized how Cultural Leadership has truly affected me. Before this program, I would have never even been able to keep taking notes, much less listen to what they had to say. This experience taught me a lot about keeping an open mind and listening with the intent to learn, no matter what the conditions.

Next we visited the Rosa Parks Museum, where speaker Georgette Norman gave an amazing presentation. Afterwards, we wrote mock speeches to practice for the speeches we give when we get home. We Drove by the Greyhound Bus Center but did not go in. We also saw a confederate flag. We also got to see Holy Street Baptist Church. We walked around the side and could peer inside the church from a window. At the National Center for Civil Rights, we toured a beautiful art gallery that had fantastic paintings. After studying a painting of a black military man carrying a white injured man on his back with a tree and lunch counter in the background, Zack and I had a long argument/discussion about art theory, warm and cold colors, and subsequent events in art. We continued analyzing the art on the way to dinner with Zoe. It was a good hour of us talking over each other, trying to express ourselves without sounding crazy. That night, we split up into two groups and read our speeches. Through “praise and polish” our peers commented o help us improve. It was very productive and helped us all to practice.