Double Sided Coke Machine

Over the last two days, I've begun to notice the importance of details while learning about the Civil Rights Movement. We've already been to three museums, which are certainly informative in that they provide endless stories of the movement, but for me, the most memorable things are the simplest details. A double-sided coke machine, one side for whites and one side for blacks, one side 5 cents and one side 10 cents, one side providing cold drinks and the other side lukewarm. Standing at the old Woolworth's counter in Greensboro, NC, where the A&T Four first sparked the sit-in movement that spread across the U.S. started in 1960. And yesterday's visit to the original Ebenezer Baptist Church in the city of Atlanta, GA where Dr. King and his father preached. For the most part, the church remained untouched. Instead of turning into a museum with copious amounts of photographs and long blocks of text, the only noticeable alteration was a recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s last speech, the speech he gave the day before he was killed, echoing around the room. We sat in the pews where his congregation sat 46 years ago, listening to his last words. The raw simplicity about the moment was powerful because it was tangible. Being in that church brought me closer to Dr. King than any documentary or museum display ever could.

Eve, Park School