December 3: Tupelo, Mississippi, to Montgomery, Alabama

I visited three museums today. First, in Tupelo I found my way to the house where Elvis Presley had been born. Having visited Graceland in Memphis with some friends a few years ago, I thought I might check the actual birthplace out. The house has been preserved/restored nicely. When he was a young teenager, Elvis's family was foreclosed on and the family moved to Memphis. This house had no electricity or running water. Having the seen this tiny home, I have a better sense of why, with his success, he was so extravagant in his home and furnishings at Graceland.

Also preserved is the church where Elvis first sang gospel as a boy of 9.

Next I stopped at the Tupelo Auto Museum. It contains over 100 fully restored cars. The better items in this collection are mostly the very early autos, including an 1886 Benz, one of the very first autos. But I was surprised to find a number of examples of vehicles I knew fairly well.

This car is very similar to the car Kate owned in graduate school in North Carolina. It is even the same color (green) although her car was a much brighter green.

This car is an old Jaguar, exactly the model that my roommate in college had during our freshman year when I didn't have a car.

And finally there was only one motorcycle in the museum, a 1976 Honda 360.  It is exactly the same motorcycle that I bought in 1976 and have not ridden since 1988. It is in our barn in Chichester. This museum piece has only 2,600 miles on it. Mine has only 8,000 miles. Maybe I should clean mine up and exhibit it?

I drove from Tupelo southeastward to Selma, Alabama, site of the important voting rights march during the Civil Rights Movement era. I wanted to see the National Voting Rights Museum and Institute. I arrived in Selma about 3:45pm. Th museum looked empty. The interior lights were off. But when I got to the door, it was open.
A lone woman was inside, looking like she was about to lock up. I told her I wanted to see the museum. She was so happy! She said she would give me a personal tour. While the museum has the word "National" in its title, it is really a local Selma non-profit and is run by volunteers.  Annie Pearl Townsend-Avery is my age but she is a little infirm and uses a walker to help get around. She was a participant in the "Bloody Sunday" first march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 when the local police and state troopers attacked the marchers, was a partcipant in the so-called "turn around" march, and in the final march that was protected by the US Army and National Guard. She was 18 years old at the time and had already been involved as a coordinator for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) for 3 years.

She showed me the photos of the Selma events and described the deliberations the demonstrators had each day and the differences of opinion as to how to proceed. She told me of the injuries she had suffered, the anger and fear her mother had at her participation, the leaders she had met and with whom she had been jailed. Her personal stories were amazing. She pointed out the many leaders of the struggle who have died and how few of the marchers are still alive. She has not recorded her story. But she said that in her remaining days her goal is to convey the story to others. I told her she had to find someone who would help her record an oral history. What a great conversation we had.

Here is a photo I took of the Edmund Pettus Bridge where the Bloody Sunday events took place.

If anyone is interested in the events that took place here, the following is a good summary on wikipedia
Selma to Montgomery marches 1965

As dusk fell I drove the route the marchers had taken, the Jefferson Davis Highway (US Route 80) to Montgomery.