SOUTHERNLIVING.COM / FEBRUARY 20 1985don’t employ the EJI’s sophisticated
technology still inspire with their
authenticity and passionate staffs.
The Dexter Avenue King Memorial
Baptist Church has its original pews
and stained glass windows, Dr. King’s
office downstairs, and the pulpit from
which he preached. Go there to meet
tour ministry director Wanda Battle, if
for no other reason. “When you talk
about human rights and social justice,
you’re talking about how we treat each
other, and you’re talking about love
and faith and compassion,” she says.
“That’s what Dr. King shared, because
in his work, he was always fascinated
with how the mind of man—meaning
philosophy—melded with theology—
meaning the mind of God.”
Battle believes current events have
spurred a renewed interest in civil and
human rights, which is why many are
now drawn to Montgomery. “People
are fascinated by this history of
overcoming and standing for what is
right,” she says. “Mahatma Gandhi’s
quote was, ‘You must be the change
you wish to see in the world.’ I make
that personal, and I share it with
people on my tours.”
Few figures in the Civil Rights
Movement represent “it begins with
me” more than Rosa Parks. Dr. Felicia
Bell is director of Troy University’s Rosa
Parks Museum, which is located on
the campus downtown. This modern
facility and its Children’s Annex tell
the story of Mrs. Parks’ life and her
involvement in the Civil Rights Move-
ment. It draws international crowds.
“Sometimes, the young children who
come here love to tell us what they
already know about Mrs. Parks,” Bell
explains. “So we always take the time
to listen to them. And then we try to
impart some things that they possiblydon’t know: that she was an activist
all of her life, that she was more than
just the woman who was arrested on
the bus that day.”
Bell believes children are key to
the tourism boom in Montgomery
because they take field trips to the
sites and then go home and tell their
parents. And when kids can interact
with history, as they do aboard a time-
traveling bus in the Children’s Annex,
they learn about it at a whole new level.
No doubt Stevenson would agree.
An attorney and law professor by trade,
he has dedicated his life to advocating
for the poor and the disenfranchised.
“I think it’s important for children
to know the history of this country,
because in some ways, they’re going
to encounter the legacy of that history,”
Stevenson explains. “And if they don’t
have a context, then it will be easy for
them to get confused. So I believe that
giving children a sense of what has
happened and where we are in this
struggle to get to a better place is
so important.”
In the end, Stevenson is as optimis-
tic as he is realistic: “I am persuaded
that justice will come when the ideas in
our minds are fueled by the convictions
in our hearts. It’s not just minds that
we have to change. We have to change
people’s hearts.” ÂDR. FELICIA BELL
Director of the Rosa Parks MuseumGOLSON AND JOHN FOSHEE
Foshee Residential