Montgomery

We continued what Christine dubbed our "Civil Rights Tour" at the church where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led the congregation from 1954 to 1960.  Alabama's Capitol and the area surrounding it were eerily deserted.

Footprints in the adjacent crosswalk commemorate nonviolent marches from Selma to Montgomery in the Sixties that led to passage of the Voting Rights Act.  

In 2013, the US Supreme Court struck down provisions of the act that monitored its implementation on the grounds that they were no longer were needed.  Chief Justice Roberts should explain that to Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia.  Her narrow loss to the white Republican candidate, who also happened to be Georgia's Secretary of State, was likely due to suppression of the African American vote by his office.  

"Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose."  The more things change the more they stay the same.

Google offered no insight about what these crosses, planted in the lawn directly across from the Capitol, signify.  A vagrant tour hustler said they represented the increasing number of annual homicides in the city; Christine thought they might be associated with a pro-life event she'd seen advertised.  Their symbolism seemed fraught in any case, given the context.

Maya Lin designed the nearby Civil Rights Memorial.  It seems utterly genteel in comparison to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

Water washes over a granite block engraved with the names of Civil Rights martyrs and the movement's significant events.  Clearly, given the current climate, the struggle continues.

The engravings are similar to those found on the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, also designed by Lin.