Martin Luther King Memorial

Atlanta's skyline from the MLK MARTA station

We had nearly a full day in Atlanta so decided to revisit the MLK Memorial Park. To get there we took MARTA, the light rail Atlanta built for the 1996 Olympics. It’s a great system, very easy to use and a quick ride with only one transfer. MARTA consists of two north-south lines and two east-west lines that intersect in one spot. Both north-south lines begin at the airport making it very convenient for travelers. More and more cities are building these systems making getting to and from the airport much easier than it used to be – and cheaper than the taxi alternative.

Some find MARTA very comfortable

We walked about five blocks from the MARTA station to the memorial. The visitor center is small enough to go through in less than an hour including the 28 minute movie. They do a good job of highlighting his career and the elements of his philosophy without overdramatizing or getting maudlin over his death. One small section designed for kids discusses ways to get involved. The display area is divided into small ‘rooms’ to highlight different points in the movement. Quotes and pictures line the walls along with a television running his speeches or statements by those who were with him.

Martin's funeral procession

Part of an outside mural - really a timeline of Martin's life

The only display that doesn't work for me is the walk. Several generic people are displayed walking up a street with a hard-to-read sign at the end discussing how we each need to make our walk. I think most people appreciate the art, but it is hard to get the point.  

The Walk

The memorial is located on Auburn Street where MLK grew up and was one of the richest black neighborhoods in the South. After riots in 1906, the area was taken over by blacks who developed it with a thriving business district. MLK grew up surrounded by successful African-Americans so he saw a world that could be even as he also saw the segregation around him. Like other such districts like Beale Street in Memphis, today, the district is much less than it was with only a couple of business left. It is still a neighborhood and perhaps it will grow again with the building of a trolley line that will connect the area with downtown.

The King house

An upper middle class neighborhood

Shotgun duplexes - Called shotgun because the hallway ran the length of the house so you could fire a gun through the front door and out the back without hitting anything. Each duplex had four rooms. 

In the area, we also walked by the house MLK grew up in and the fire station where he spend some of his time as a child. Even though the fire department was segregated until the1960s, the firemen welcomed the neighborhood children who, as boys would be, were excited by the trucks and the work.

What boy wouldn't have fun hanging out here?

A memorial pond highlights the graves of Martin and Coretta, an eternal flame, and a Peace rose developed in her name.

Our last stop was to visit Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin followed his father and grandfather into the ministry. Now just a memorial, it has been restored to its condition when Martin was minister there. The congregation has grown and built a new sanctuary across the street.

Tomorrow we will be in Johannesburg and tour the Apartheid Museum so this was a fitting beginning to our sojourn in South Africa.  Although apartheid was abhorrent, Americans cannot chastise the South Africans when you consider our history of the treatment of African Americans. 

Coming Home Isn't Easy

Wow!!??!!

Who knew that getting back home would be such a hassle. Going through customs from Botswana to South Africa is a piece of cake. You show your passport, they stamp it and then you walk through the side of the exit that says, "Nothing to Declare." In Johannesburg we even had time to go through customs, pick up the bags we had stored, go through the process to get our tourist tax refund, check in to our flight and go through security with over an hour to spare.

Then it got interesting. When we got to the Delta gate we had to go through security again. This meant a pat-down and a physical inspection of all our carry-ons. When asked why only those of us going to the US had this extra security check, the inspector said, "You Americans don't even trust yourselves." I just smiled since what he said certainly seems to be true.

Even more bizarrely, after we got through passport control and customs in Atlanta, we had to go through ANOTHER security check. This one was the most extensive yet. To begin with our bags had to be rechecked to come out of a baggage claim on the other side of the airport. Then we went through the full security check: remove shoes and electronics and everything from all your pockets, just like we were boarding a plane. We did all that wondering why it was harder to get out of the airport than it had been to get on the plane in the first place. Europe and Africa don't haven't required the removal of the shoes for years now.

We were also supposed to make sure we put any liquids we had purchased duty free into the baggage we had rechecked. Unfortunately, we didn't understand that part of the instructions so we still had the bottle of Amarula we had purchased in the duty free shop with us. So Linda got to go all the way back and check another bag so we could get out of the airport. When I asked the TSA lady why we had to do all this, her reply was that it's the rule. When I asked why that was the rule, she told me that is the way it has always been that way in Atlanta, even though it is not that way anywhere else we have re-entered the country.

While Linda was gone for the 15 minutes it took to go back and check a bag with the Amarula, I asked someone at the information booth at the end of the security check. He explained that the design of the Atlanta Airport means that when we left the international arrivals area, we were still within the secure zone, so all this is really necessary. When I told him what the TSA lady had told me that was because that is how TSA responds, but that as a citizen, traveler and pilot, he would do better. He also said that a new international terminal will open on May 16 and this extra security will not be necessary. It is so nice to talk to someone who will actually listen to the question and respond with a reasonable answer. At least now we understand why this seemingly ridiculous policy is in place.

The sad thing is that this all makes us seem so unwelcome to visitors from other countries. As a nation we are so paranoid that we make our guests feel unwelcome before they are even allowed in the country.

Martin Luther King Memorial

Friday evening Linda and I watched the Ancestry.com show on NBC with Blair Underwood. That same night I read the first third of The Help. Today, we spent most of the day at the Martin Luther King Memorial in Atlanta. Tomorrow we leave for South Africa. I am sensing a pattern here. 

The new Ebenezer Baptist Sanctuary

Blair Underwood’s story was most interesting as he learned some things that were surprising. I knew that some African-Americans owned slaves in the South, and knew that one of the largest plantation owners was an African-American. What I did not know was that slaves freed in Virginia after about  1807 had to leave the state or they would be resold into slavery. The practical effect of this was that many of the African-Americans in Virginia who owned slaves actually owned family members that they had purchased so they could remain in Virginia. An interesting unintended consequence. 

One of Six Circular Displays

Selma to Montgomery

 The Memorial is an effective reminder of Martin Luther King, Jr., his life and his legacy. It is built in the neighborhood of Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin grew up and includes a mural of his life along with a statue of Mahatma Gandhi and a Walk of Heroes.

The inside is small enough to be done in a couple of hours. The main exhibit consists of six circular displays chronicling his life and a life-size mockup of the March to Selma that allows visitors to join in. Many families took advantage of this to have their pictures taken as part of the March. Another building has rooms dedicated to Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King. Across the street is his tomb. 

Model of the Memorial to be in Washington, DC

Mahatma Gandhi and the Walk of Heroes

The neighborhood included both an upscale Middle Class section and a number of shotgun duplexes. Shotgun houses were probably called that because the central hallway led from the front door to the back. That meant one could shoot a gun through the open doors without hitting the house. 

King's Boyhood Home

Shotgun Duplexes in the Neighborhood

Tomb and Reflecting Pool

 As we walked through the exhibit, I was impressed by the number of young families there with us. I wish every American could visit this along with the museums in Birmingham and Montgomery I was able to visit a few years ago. We can’t be reminded of these events and their legacy too often as we continue to be bedeviled by problems or prejudice – not all of which are race-related.

Sanctuary - Ebenezer Baptist Church

Sanctuary - Ebenezer Baptist Church

 I was also somewhat surprised by how quiet the area is. We were there on a Saturday and there were lots of people, but the expanse spread us out enough that we did not feel crowded. The somberness of the story probably helped. 

I am convinced that any trip to Atlanta should include this visit, even after the city completes the new Civil Rights Museum in Centennial Park on the other side of town.