From Selma To Montgomery: Remembering Alabama's Civil Rights Movement Through Museums

170 Pages·2015·4.91 MB·English

by  Holly Jansen

Florida State University Libraries
Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2012
From Selma to Montgomery: Remembering
Alabama's Civil Rights Movement Through
Museums
Holly Jansen
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

FROM SELMA TO MONTGOMERY:

REMEMBERING ALABAMA’S CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT THROUGH MUSEUMS

By

HOLLY JANSEN

A Thesis submitted to the
Department of History
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts

Degree Awarded:
Fall Semester, 2012
Holly Jansen defended this thesis on November 2, 2012.
The members of the supervisory committee were:

Maxine D. Jones
Professor Co-Directing Thesis

Jennifer L. Koslow
Professor Co-Directing Thesis

G. Kurt Piehler
Committee Member

The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies
that the dissertation has been approved in accordance with university requirements.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This thesis has been seven years in the making, and I am grateful for the assistance, patience,
and support of many individuals. First and foremost, I thank Dr. Maxine Jones for not giving up on
me after several topic changes and long periods of my absence. I would also like to thank Dr.
Jennifer Koslow for agreeing to co-chair my committee, and Dr. Kurt Piehler for fulfilling my last-
minute request to join my committee. Words cannot express my gratitude for their accommodation
of me and my lengthy manuscript on this short deadline. I am also appreciative for the assistance of
Anne Kozar and Chris Pignatiello in helping me to navigate the many deadlines and requirements
for graduation.
My colleagues, both past and present, have encouraged many of my thesis efforts over the
years. I must thank Joan Denman and Mary Frances Turner for their guidance and support. I am
also grateful to Dale Johnson, my mentor and my friend, for her advice in this and all aspects of my
life. Thanks and love and love. I owe enormous gratitude to my coworkers at the History Museum
of Mobile for their encouragement over the last few months. Special thanks to Lori McDuffie for
holding down the Collections Department while I have been consumed in this project.
I could not have completed this thesis without the intellectual, emotional, and logistical
support of Dr. David Alsobrook and Scotty Kirkland. I am forever indebted to Dr. Alsobrook for
giving me to the opportunity to start a new chapter in my career, and finish an old one. I am
especially grateful to Scotty for loaning me his personal library and helping me obtain other sources,
editing multiple drafts, and providing advice and feedback on an almost daily basis. He truly is a
scholar and a friend, and he has inspired me through his example.
My family and friends have also provided tremendous support in not only this project, but
all of my life’s endeavors. I appreciate their understanding in my isolation from normal life during
this process, and especially for listening to me talk about my paper nonstop. Thank you, Chris
Green for fun conversations that had nothing to do with history. Thank you, Sarah Kershaw for
always being there for me, and for talking me down from the many crises that have arisen during
this process. Thank you, Melissa Hurst for continuing to hold my hand through my journeys,
academic and otherwise. I appreciate you being on call day or night to solve problems, give expert
advice, and provide media support for this project. At least you didn’t have to type it.
My family is the foundation for all of my accomplishments, and without them, I would be
lost. To my sisters, Laurel and Kerri, thank you for always making fun of me for being a history
nerd, and Kaden, my favorite nephew, for loving history like me, or at least pretending to. To Jesse,
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my co-author in life, thank you for putting up with me for the last eight years, especially these last
few months. I love you.
Lastly, I thank my parents, Gregory and Patricia Jansen, for their unwavering
encouragement, support, and interest in everything I do. More than providing logistical support,
talking with me about my project, and reading every draft, they are truly the models of unconditional
love and patience. I love you, and I hope that I make you proud, now and always.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Figures .................................................................................................................................................... vi

List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................................................... vii

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................ viii

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 1

1.
ROSA PARKS MUSEUM ...................................................................................................................... 14
The Montgomery Bus Boycott ......................................................................................................... 14
Rosa Parks Museum History ............................................................................................................ 26
Exhibit Review.................................................................................................................................... 34

2.
NATIONAL VOTING RIGHTS MUSEUM ..................................................................................... 47
The Selma to Montgomery March ................................................................................................... 47
National Voting Rights Museum History ....................................................................................... 68
Exhibit Review.................................................................................................................................... 88

3.
LOWNDES COUNTY INTERPRETIVE CENTER .................................................................... 101
The Lowndes County Voting Rights Movement ........................................................................ 101
History of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail .................................................. 118
Exhibit Review.................................................................................................................................. 136

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................. 150

BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................................... 155

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...................................................................................................................... 161

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LIST OF F IGURES

0.1 Alabama County Map ............................................................................................................................... 13
1.1 Rosa Parks Museum Exterior .................................................................................................................. 35
1.2 Museum Lobby .......................................................................................................................................... 35
1.3 Museum Theater ........................................................................................................................................ 36
1.4 Children’s Wing Exhibits ......................................................................................................................... 45
2.1 National Voting Rights Museum Exterior ............................................................................................. 89
2.2 Bloody Sunday Exhibit ............................................................................................................................. 90
2.3 Selma to Montgomery March Exhibit .................................................................................................... 92
2.4 Reconstruction Gallery ............................................................................................................................. 94
2.5 Church Gallery ........................................................................................................................................... 95
2.6 Jail Exhibit .................................................................................................................................................. 97
2.7 Bridge Crossing Jubilee Exhibit .............................................................................................................. 98
3.1 Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail ................................................................................... 119
3.2 Lowndes County Interpretive Center Exterior ................................................................................... 137
3.3 Introductory Exhibit ............................................................................................................................... 138
3.4 Lowndes County Residents Diorama ................................................................................................... 140
3.5 Selma to Montgomery Timeline Exhibit .............................................................................................. 141
3.6 Bloody Sunday Exhibit ........................................................................................................................... 142
3.7 Marcher Mannequins .............................................................................................................................. 143
3.8 Peter Pettus Photo Interactive ............................................................................................................... 144
3.9 Tent City Diorama................................................................................................................................... 146
3.10 Conclusion Exhibit ............................................................................................................................... 148

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

AHC Alabama Historical Commission
ALDOT Alabama Department of Transportation
ASU Alabama State University
DCVL Dallas County Voters League
FHWA Federal Highway Administration
LCFO Lowndes County Freedom Organization
LCCMHR Lowndes County Christian Movement for Human Rights
MIA Montgomery Improvement Association
NAACP National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
NPS National Parks Service
NVRM National Voting Rights Museum
SCLC Southern Christian Leadership Conference
SPLC Southern Poverty Law Center
SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
WPC Women’s Political Council

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ABSTRACT

Though the first wave of civil rights museums in the 1990s have received a fair amount of
scholarly attention, the museums created in the twenty-first century, and those that have changed
their exhibits, has not yet been investigated. This paper hopes to fill the gap in the historiography by
exploring how newer museums remember the civil rights movement through case studies of three
museums in central Alabama: the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, the National Voting Rights
Museum in Selma, and the Lowndes County Interpretive Center in Lowndes County. Each chapter
examines the museum’s response to the scholarly literature, the collective memory of the local
community, especially the museums’ creators, and the narrative of the movement that the museum
presents. The case studies show that museums are contributing to the scholarship of the movement
by creating new sources to investigate the movement by collecting and preserving documents,
photographs, artifacts, and oral history. These museums also reveal the importance of place as a
theme in civil rights memorials. More than the preservation of the physical structures of history,
each museum commemorates the actual sites of history. The museums’ locations and exhibits are
closely tied to the places of the civil rights movement. By exploring these and other influences on
historical memory, this paper will offer new insight on the meanings and legacies of the civil rights
movement.

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INTRODUCTION
The modern civil rights era is the most important political and social revolution in twentieth
century American history, and the stories of triumph and tragedy set against a background of
unimaginable conditions of segregation are increasingly capturing the attention of Americans. Unlike
older events, historians and the general public have benefited from photographic and video
resources that document the history. Though historians and the public are both interested in history,
they do not always communicate with each other. Much of the academic work is written by and for
historians. The public, on the other hand, is not engaging with the scholarly literature. Instead of
attending conferences or perusing the pages of the Journal of American History, the average American
engages in history through television shows, movies, memorials, and museums.1
Some of the more popular ventures like Mississippi Burning, are just “wrongheaded attempt[s]
at a sympathetic portrayal of the movement.” 2 The 1988 movie credits the FBI with taking down
the KKK, while African Americans stand on the sidelines. After the feds save the day, blacks and
whites gather together at the church, singing about how they will “Walk on by Faith.” The film’s
depiction of blacks as passive in the movement to secure their freedom and the resulting racial
harmony resulted in an Academy Award nomination for Best Motion Picture. It also helped to
perpetuate stereotypes of the black freedom struggle, views that are still held today.
On the other hand, some popular films are known for their adherence to scholarship. Eyes on
the Prize has become the seminal documentary on the movement. The fourteen episode Public
Broadcasting Service special originally aired in two parts in 1987 and 1990, and won the praise of
both the general public and academic audiences. Using primary sources like archival footage and
interviews with movement veterans, the film details the black freedom struggle from 1955 through
1983. The documentary remains true to the historical accounts in its coverage of both local and
national topics, like the murder of Emmett Till, voter registration in Lowndes County, Alabama, and
James Meredith’s 1966 March Against Fear. With so much attention to the movement in the South,
the film also sheds light on often overlooked events in the above the Mason-Dixon line, including
the 1967 election of the Carl Stokes, the first black mayor of a major city in Cleveland, Ohio, and

1 Roy Rosenzweig and David Thelen, Presence of the Past: Popular Uses of History in American Life (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1998), 227.

2 David Dennis, civil rights veteran and director of The Algebra Project, as quoted in Emilye Crosby, A Little Taste
of Freedom: The Black Freedom Struggle in Claiborne County, Mississippi, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
2005), xiii-xiv.
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