Albany

Our day began at the Albany Civil Rights Institute. The lobby there is set up to bring represent a pre-civil rights bus station. There are two doors one of which is marked “whites only” the other “colored only”. There is a five year old girl traveling with our group. In an effort to provide us with a teaching moment, the man asked the girl to try to go through the whites only door. When she placed her hand on the door he rebuked her. This was done to demonstrate what would have happened prior to integration of the bus station. The young lady’s lip began to quiver.As a few tears streamed down her cheeks, he tried to explain and console her somewhat, but the bell had been rung. Seeing her reaction made it a bit too real. Part of the purpose of the segregation laws wasn’t just to keep people apart. It was, by design, a system meant to keep one race down. A poignant object lesson.

The next portion of our visit there involved meeting Ms. Rutha Harris. She was one of the original Freedom Singers. She is a 71 year old woman seemingly unaffected by age. Neither her face nor her voice were diminished by her years. Her voice could falter the walls of Jericho. They helped fell the wall of segregation. When she sang it physically seemed to cause my entire body to reverberate, but not in a way that made the music seemed too loud for my ears. We had been told how important music was to the Civil Rights Movement. It was not difficult to understand how these songs, especially when sung by such people of faith, could buoy the spirit, provide courage, and both mask and diminish fear.

Her music fed my soul. Tonight our first tatse of soul food…

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