Hello, Twila here. Let me tell you about the wonderful time I had in Montgomery.

I am going to tell you about my 3 favorite things that I did there.

1.         Food. My favorite restaurant was called Soul Food and I loved the fried okra!

2.         The Legacy Sites, which include:

• A.        The Legacy Museum
• B.         The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
• C.        Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

The Legacy Museum was one of the best Museum experiences I have ever had. They had beautiful but sorrowful sculptures created by very talented artists. It sheds light on how Black people were treated so terribly before and after reconstruction. I very highly recommend this museum.

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice had some sculptures but most of it is plaques with the names of people known to be lynched. It memorialized lynching in all the states and counties where it occurred. It was very oppressive and really made you think about how Black people where trafficked, enslaved and then lynched once they gained freedom. I highly recommend this memorial.

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park was my favorite out of all of Legacy Sites. It was like an outdoor museum, telling stories of enslaved people who lived their lives with hunger, fear, rape, hard labor, whippings, loss and other atrocities all the time. Okay, let me put this into context, you’re standing on a platform with people gawking and bidding at you and you’re saying your last goodbyes to the person that you love, and you’ll never ever see them ever again. Imagine living like that every day of your life until you try to run away. But that will literally never ever work; they always find you on their big horses and drag you right back to where you were. So basically, what I’m saying here is you can never escape this. Okay back to the sculpture part…All the parks’ sculptures were beautiful, and they seemed to speak for themselves. Some of them were creative. I would love to go there again, it was amazing. I very highly recommended seeing this memorial.

3.         Other attractions and museums: the museums include:

• A.        The F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
• B.         The Rosa Parks Museum/Cleveland Avenue Time Machine

My most favorite thing about the F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum is that it has two AirBnB apartments above the museum. I really like the things that the museum put up for display, including some of F. Scott’s drafts of writings and Zelda’s art pieces. Most of the furniture belonged to Zelda’s family. It was nice to think that F. Scott or Zelda sat on them. The museum has some of the costumes from The Great Gatsby movie (Leonardo DiCaprio version) on display. My favorite room was Zelda’s. I highly recommend this museum.

The Rosa Parks Museum/Cleveland Ave Time Machine is a two-part museum. We went to the Time Machine part. So, what happens is you get into The Cleveland Ave bus, the one that Rosa Parks went on to later be asked to move because of the color of her skin. It takes you back in time. It shows how Black people were treated in a child friendly way, then progresses to tell how people worked to make it better and how we can continue their work. I recommend this museum.

All in all, I had an amazing time in Montgomery I hope I can go there again. When go back,d I hope I can visit more museums and eat more soul food.  

-Twila