To Atlanta To Learn about Dr. King

This is such a good place. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr is a good man who had vision beyond his situation. This place tribute to a good man, but it is more than that.

It is a tribute to ideas which would carry our nation through a painful transition, but it is more than just a museum about ideals. It was hard to visit this place and not be pulled in by all aspects of the history and the philosophy that we associate with the Civil Rights Movement.

I didn't know how the kids would internalize the facts, but I think they were largely protected by their innocence so that they each processed it at their developmental level. My six year old A listened to us read about six year old Ruby Bridges. Ruby was the only child in her New Orleans class for one year because the parents of the white children in her class boycotted her presence. I can't imagine my A having to face that kind of sadness.

The kids were intrigued by this installation of symbolic civil rights' marchers, so while the adults read the graphics in the heavy and inspiring circular exhibits on either side of the museum, the kids looked into the eyes of the statues and talked through their observations. 

At the head of that procession of marchers, I found my favorite MLK, Jr. quote in the museum. 

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is 'what are you doing for others?'"

Outside the museum are more tributes to the man, MLK, Jr.

Our favorite place on the site is the Ebenezer Baptist Church where King preached with his father between the ages of 17 and 27. It is preserved to look like it did in King's day.

Inside we sat in the pews and listened to a recording of one of his sermons. After our short five or ten minutes inside, the interpretive park ranger asked Eli what he learned and Eli replied "that we need to love our enemies and not hate."  He had been listening and he learned enough.

I wonder what our children will remember of this in the years to come. I know I will remember the reverent feeling inside this chapel and the beautiful, colorful light streaming through the windows. I'm already looking for a good biography of this man who made such a difference.