PJ's 2006 RAMBLE

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October 24, 2006

Selma, Alabama

It's about 54 miles from Montgomery to Selma, AL, and I followed the route of the famous civil rights marches of 1965 down Hwy 80 (though I was going the opposite direction of the march). There is surprisingly little to see or note on this piece of blacktop, it's 4-lane divided from start to finish and there aren't really any towns along the way, just slight hills and farm fields with the occasional house or grazing animal. Because I'd left Montgomery in the late afternoon and was driving due west, the sun was at the optimal position in the sky for maximum blinding for most of the ride. I passed an interpretive center about halfway through the route and I'm not sure why I didn't stop, maybe it looked closed. I suppose sometimes you think, "oh, there'll be other interpretive centers along the way" or "I'll come back by tomorrow during the day and check it out," but of course there weren't and I didn't, so I can't tell you how that center was. Looking at the website now it was closed when I passed, but I'll bet it's worth the stop.

I passed a Voting Rights monument in West Selmont, then crossed that sadly-historic bridge and got into downtown Selma just as the sun was leaving the sky. As is my custom, I drove to the edges of town in most major directions to size it up for food and lodging possibilities. My first impression of downtown was that it was quiet and forlorn, though with its buildings mostly intact. I stopped at a gas station where a heavyset and jovial young black woman called out to me from inside a car "Take me with you!" to which I asked "Where?". Her name was Corvesha and her reply was "Anywhere but Selma!". I can't say if this is indicative of the prevailing youth sentiment, but I could see where Selma could leave one wanting for a taste of the larger world. I followed 80 all the way to the bland commercial strip, then went east for a mile or two before turning back south toward downtown. I passed through some depressed-looking residential neighborhoods full of small houses, saw a nice little juke joint and generally raced against time to see and photograph as much of the small city as I could during the magic hour before it got totally dark.

I took quite a few photos in Selma, it was a good subject and the weather was agreeable. In some places I visit, I just get the feeling that "this is important, I want to remember this, this should be documented," and Selma was one of those places. This doesn't mean that my photos are anything special or that they reveal anything new about the place, I just felt compelled to take a lot for myself, and if they're interesting to other people too, that's great. I won't pretend to know a lot about Selma, so my photos aren't informed by knowledge (as they would be for someone who'd lived there for the last 60 or 70 years), though I learned some things about it while there. They're just a portrait of a struggling small city in the south which played a role in the civil rights movement (and some various objects from its local museums, many unrelated to civil rights).

After I'd lost all available daylight, I decided that the Chinese restaurant downtown was my best bet for a meal, so I ate a plate of vegetable lomein there, pretty standard and pretty greasy as I recall, didn't even take a photo of it. The restaurant was typical of Chinese restaurants in small-town America, run by a few very amiable, hardworking, quiet folks who are usually studying or reading in-between customers, decorated with an eye toward generic orientalia, with a few overweight white families sitting around chowing on sweet-and-sour, egg-drop soup, pork fried rice and really traditional Chinese dishes like wontons stuffed with creamcheese(?).

After the meal it was time to settle on a motel, I'd seen some fairly run-down cheap-looking ones in West Selmont on my way into town from Montgomery, so I crossed the Edmund Pettus once again and left the lights of town for the cool Alabama night. I passed one called the Craig Motel (relatively nondescript late-model vinyl-lettered sign indicating a recent name change), sized it up as I drove by and went to investigate another one I'd seen farther out past a trailer park. After inquiring at that one and being quoted a similar price (something in the neighborhood of $30) I decided that the Craig was probably the better bet, being closer to town and not next to a trailer park. There was some suspicious thing where the owner of the motel wasn't there but a woman who said she was a maid there and appeared to be staying in one of the rooms would take my money and give me the key (turned out to be fine and a true story, just sounded a bit odd and given the circumstances. Given the sidewalk logistics I couldn't get my scooter into the room, but the maid woman came over and unlocked an area where they do the laundry and keep cleaning supplies, and she let me wheel it in there for the night. The owners, who I met in the morning, were Indian (as with 90% of the motels I took lodging in on this trip), all very nice people. The room was nothing special, a roof over my head for the night and a television to fall asleep to.

I woke up in the AM and headed over to the Pancake House I'd seen the day before, with such a nice sign how could I refuse? Good oatmeal and OJ there. Then, running low on Franklins after paying for the motel in cash, I stopped at an ATM to get some and pay both the local bank and my bank a couple of dollars each for the privilege.

I wanted to see a couple of museums recommended in my Lonely Planet guidebook and the first one was the Old Depot Museum. It was a handsome museum and I was greeted by a very kindly older woman named Jean Martin who I think is the curator there, she introduced me to a man named Earl Hopkins, a woodworker who used to work at Colonial Williamsburg and also works at this museum. He gave me a lot of great information, especially about the exhibits in the African-American History room. Next I was met by Charles Payne, who led me through the majority of the exhibits and answered all of my questions. Some of the highlights of the Old Depot Museum: 1) The Courageous Eight 2) Murals by Felix Baine 3) a Long Black Veil 4) Old Buildings Lost to Progress 5) This crazy quilt made of scraps, and most impressively a collection of 30-something early photographs documenting the everyday life and work of black slaves on a plantation. Unfortunately the Museum doesn't allow these to be photographed, but the collection is one of a kind and they alone make this place worth a visit (I hope that they can eventually be published in history books for the world to see).

My last stop in Selma was the National Voting Rights Museum, a smaller place dedicated to suffrage, both for women and minorities. This museum had an excellent display of black and white photos from the 1965 marches, showing brave blacks and their supporters peacefully uniting while State Troopers, many who were probably just as scared and some feeling righteous, finger their clubs and teargas in anticipation. It's hard to imagine that scene, like any police state given orders to stop the assembled it must've been so frightening. I have total respect and admiration for those who marched in the face of that ugliness, and I feel shame that my country was in this state so few years ago. Other items of interest were a wall of hand-written "I Was There" recollections from people who marched, monuments to those who sacrificed their lives as martyrs for the cause, political posters for black candidates, disturbing KKK artifacts (chilling to see this stuff in person if you've only ever encountered it in films, probably like when Japanese friends of mine have come to the States and seen a *real* gun for the first time) and more. Both good, important museums and worth the time if you're passing near Selma.

On my way out of town I saw what I took to be the more affluent, whiter side of Selma to the southwest of downtown. Selma is an interesting city, it has potential and I hope it can realize it. It still has a lot of great original buildings standing, though many are in danger of dereliction if not occupied or somehow rediscovered; there were a LOT of what appeared to be vacant or under-used buildings around town. Definitely worth a visit, it made quite an impression on me and I'm glad I spent the time there.

Posted by pj at October 24, 2006 03:56 PM

Comments

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