Montgomery

Montgomery was the endpoint of the march from Selma. Martin Luther King gave a famous speech from the steps of the Capitol, at the same spot where Jefferson Davis was sworn in as president of the Confederacy (a plaque marks the spot of the latter, but not the former). In the same vein, the highway from Selma to Montgomery, the route for the marchers, is also designated the "Jefferson Davis Highway." A Confederate flag flies on the grounds of the capitol, next to a grandiose Confederate war memorial. We were in Montgomery on a Sunday, and everything was closed, so we couldn't visit the Rosa Parks museum there. We did, however, go for a pleasant jog and ran up the steps of the capitol ten times.


Just down the street from the Capitol is the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church. This was Martin Luther King's pulpit in the mid-1950's, where he first rose to prominence during the Montgomery bus boycott.