Monday, February 04, 2013

The Foot Soldiers in Kelly Ingram Park


 (Photo from http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3334/3232914387_46afe08a76_z.jpg  

Last week, Mayor William A. Bell of Birmingham, AL,  announced that, to honor the 50th anniversary of the horrific events of May, 1953, the city was opening a design contest to place a new sculpture in the Kelly Ingram Park in the center of the Civil Rights District.  The piece will honor the “foot soldiers” of the Civil Rights movement.
"The foot soldiers were students, laborers, housewives and others who filled in the battleground, namelessly, behind more celebrated leaders. They are there in the history books, waving pickets, ducking water hoses, but never with a page of their own, and that's the reason for this contest, to recognize these fearless individuals for their heroic efforts," he said
The four acre park was originally called West Park, then was renamed  in 1932 for a local firefighter who was the first USN sailor to die in WWI.
It is across the street from the 16th St. Baptist Church, which  was bombed in September of 1963. The racially-motivated attack killed four little girls.  Before that, it was a staging ground for civil rights demonstrations, directed by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In May, 1963, children (some as young as 6 years old) were gathered in the park to begin a non-violent demonstrations. City police and fire fighters, ordered by Eugene “Bull” Connor, their Public Safety Commissioner,  showed up and started flailing away at them. They turned fire hoses on them at full pressure. They set police dogs on them, and whirled one young man into the dog's jaws. This was all caught on camera and flashed around the world. And the world was horrified.
By the end of the year, Federal troops were in Birmingham, and the next year, the Civil Rights Act was passed.
In 1992, the park was rededicated as "A Place of Revolution and Reconciliation". It became a center for gatherings to remember the movement and carry it forward ever since.
The first time I went into Kelly Ingram Park, I was unprepared for the visceral sculptures of James Drake there. Three pieces on the Freedom Trail engaged and enveloped me. It  made me feel a part of the terror that was that park, especially in May, 1963. Fifty years ago.
They're actually vignettes. Fire hoses on tripods on both sides of the trail, jail cell bars on one side and children trapped on the other, and the most horrifying of all- the police dogs. I strolled the winding path observing,  reflecting, and becoming increasingly engaged at the sights. And then- straight ahead, the path ran between two 8 foot high walls with oversized German Shepards snarling out of them. In order to continue, I had to walk between them for ten feet. It sent chills down my spine.
It's stayed with me ever since.
When the Mayor called for new designs, he also said that there will also be a monument to the little girls who died across the street.
Both monuments will be made of steel, both because Birmingham is known for its steel, and because it represents the steel that was in the hearts of the people who were involved.
The winners of the competitions will be announced in September, and the pieces will be dedicated a year later. 

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