Deep South Road Trip 2018 - Atlanta, GA to Birmingham, AL

Tuesday 23 January - Atlanta, GA

Nige and I met in International Arrivals at Atlanta's Hartsfield–Jackson Airport, the world's busiest airport by number of passengers, more than a 100 million annually.  Nige arriving from London still had to adjust to Eastern Standard Time. I'd flown from Oregon, so was shifting three hours in the other direction.  To collect our car, we caught the shuttle bus to the Car Rental Center, an entire multi-storey car park and the largest rental facility we'd seen. 

In our rental car, driving from Hartsfield–Jackson Airport to the Holiday Express in Downtown Atlanta  

After checking in with Tray (ebullient, forthright) at the Holiday Express on the corner of Luckie and Cone Streets in Downtown Atlanta, we took an Uber to a fish restaurant called Beetlecat for dinner with my niece. She entertained us with stories of life in Atlanta and told us about her biggest client, Chick-fil-A, not yet known to us but its billboards would soon become familiar.  

Wednesday 24 January - Atlanta, GA to Birmingham, AL

After breakfast at the Holiday Express, we drove to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park.

We looked in at the Visitor Center before joining a tour of the house where MLK grew up. Our guide Celine was a recent arrival from the Virgin Islands, where she'd also been employed by the National Parks. She moved to Atlanta after Hurricane Irma hit in September 2017. Celine asked us each to give our names and say where we were from. She chided Pablo from Gijon, Spain for being late.

Richard and Nige standing in front of the house where MLK grew up

Houses in the Sweet Auburn Historic District

The Eternal Flame near the mausoleum for Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King

Quotation on a wall near the mausoleum

After the tour of MLK's house, we visited the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Martin Luther King, Sr. served there from 1927, first as assistant pastor then as pastor. In 1960, Martin Luther King, Jr., joined his father as co-pastor and remained in that position until his death in 1968. His funeral was held in the church. His father retired on August 1, 1975 after forty-four years of service. At the church, we met Reverend Ricki (Soaring Dove), 89, born one month after MLK. She told us she'd identified as white at birth, later embracing her American Indian heritage and qualifiying as a medicine woman. She showed us her biceps, strong from giving massages. 

Reverend Ricki (Soaring Dove)

After coffee and lunch at Revelator Coffee Shop, we set off on the I20 for Birmingham, AL.

Street art on the side of MiBarrio Mexican Restaurant, near where we had coffee

View from the I20

First impressions of Birmingham

At Birmingham, we checked in at the Tourway Inn Motel, slightly run down and without facilities for making tea or coffee in the bedrooms. The motel is close to the I65, not far from where it intersects the I20. These two overhead freeways cut through the heart of the city. The motel's owner told us he moved here from Birmingham in the UK.

Our motel

In the evening, we explored Birmingham on foot. Dinner at the Shu Shop bar and restaurant was followed by live music, David Rawlings and Gillian Welch at the Lyric Theater with its historic ‘Coloreds Only’ doorway. The whole performance including intermission was just short of three hours, during which the audience remained attentive and respectful, showing appreciation in the right places. 

Lyric Theatre

Historic Colored Entrance in Lyric Theatre

David Rawlings and Gillian Welch

16th Street Baptist Church

Thursday Morning 25 January - Birmingham, AL

At the motel, freeway traffic kept Nige awake during the night. News on morning TV carried a story about Teddie Butcher, a white teacher on administrative leave from her school in Alabama after telling a black student to "turn the nigga tunes off". She'd been listening to Tupac in a class where music was usually allowed.

For breakfast we visited Ted’s Restaurant, a traditional diner without windows. Grits for the first (and last) time was served by Tammy, who was kind to us and unwilling to be photographed. The diner's proud owner told us his story, from his childhood in Greece, and took our photograph in front of his newly painted logo on the wall outside.

We stopped at the 16th Street Baptist Church, the target of a terrorist bombing by the KKK on Sunday, September 15, 1963 which killed four girls and injured 22 people. Although the identity of the perpetrators was known, there were no prosecutions until 1977. The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing contributed to support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  Near the church we bumped into a friendly group of tourists from China heading for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute with their enthusiastic guide.

Four Spirits Statue, memorial to 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims

Next we drove to Sloss Furnaces, a rusted, decaying iron plant that's now a self guided museum. 

We asked Henry, a security guard, about Birmingham, which he said is evenly split Republican / Democrat, maybe slightly more Republican, and has a black Democrat mayor Randall Woodfin. We asked Henry for his views on DJT: a businessman looking out for America's trading and other interests, but unable to achieve anything because he's a non-politician and man-child. His “my bigger button” feud with Kim Jong Un made Henry feel unsafe. We talked about how community has been breaking apart, with 20 year old grandmothers and people growing up on the streets.

Henry, security guard at Sloss Furnaces

While we were at Sloss Furnaces, a steady stream of long trains with diesel engines passed on the nearby railroad. One of these was carrying hundreds of used army tanks.

Train of tanks passing Sloss Furnaces