Birmingham

Yesterday we started out the day with a service at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, then got on the bus and drove into Birmingham, where we went to the museum right next to 16th Street Baptist Church and then were lucky enough to have dinner with several people who were part of the Civil Rights movement and who talked with us about their experience. Although everything was incredible, I'll only go into detail about the service. If I tried to cover everything, I could fill up a book already and not be done.

The service was very interesting; at some point during the service, it really hit me how important churches must have been to the movement, and - more precisely - how and why they were immediately on entering, there was a sense of becoming a part of the community, however briefly; without that extra sense of family, many black people fighting for their rights would have stood together...but alone. Having that extra, unfailing, ever-present sense of family made many things that seemed impossible into improbable things to be tackled side by side, hand in hand. another thing that struck me there was the way that they dealt with sadness. Throughout the service there was singing, of course, and just a generally positive feeling, but the thing that kept this from being a shallow and ethereal sort of happiness was the fact that they also embraced the sad realities. Embraced, but were not overpowered by, did not dwell upon. To me, that was the key part of the whole service, and the thing i would most like to keep with me.

Alia Satterfield, Park School