Montgomery Alabama

If you have been keeping up with my derry doing you will know that I tried to schedule a visit to the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. This is where Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was pastor for almost six years and where he made many of the plans for the civil rights movement including the marches from Selma to Montgomery. Now the only way to get in to do this is by booking. I was fortunate enough that my booking was accepted and the truly wonderful Wanda Battles took me on the most memorable of tours through this piece of living history. It was just Wanda and I. Before I go any further let me say that this lady is a national living treasure. 

Wanda had connections to the King family and was able to share information on a personal level that your regular tour guide couldn't. We started in the basement of the church where Dr King's office was. I learned that until 1934 his first name was Michael, when his father was in Germany and so impressed with Martin Luther that he changed both his and his son's name in honour of the reformer. 

I saw, stood at and handled the pulpit that he placed at the foot of the capitol steps when he gave his speech about about voting rights that "..... it will not be long". I leaned on his desk where he did his work and Wanda and I even sang and played the piano that would have been used for Sunday School. 

Then we headed upstairs to the church itself. It was just like I remembered it from the historical photos. Wanda showed me the baptisimal font behind the pulpit and lifted up the floor to reveal the steps down so that you would be fully immersed. Feeling like a fraud I stood at the pulpit and looked out on the empty church wondering what it would have been like in those dark days and what words would have been spoken to console and inspire. 

Then for me the unexpected highlight of the day was when I sat down at the piano and played a hastily improvised spiritual song. Wanda even grabbed a few snaps and I got one of her standing next to the pulpit. Moments like this don't some happen very often. It was my very distinct pleasure to have shared this with one very special person.

So it was with great sadness that I left Montgomery which seemed like a beautiful city. I headed down south and out of Alabama to the far more hedonistic Pensacola Beach, Florida.