Kelly Ingram Park is the place where children younger than me dressed in their finest attire and protested for their lives. Throughout the park, there were life-sized jet black rigid statues that memorialized the civil rights protester and civilians who were murdered because of racism. One statue displayed a young boy, close to my age, getting bit by a police dog while another statue displayed three dogs running to attack. Seeing statues that were my size did something to me that learning through a class or through a book has not done to me. Rather than garnering a feeling of anger because of the statues, I became insecure. The park challenged me to ask whether my family, my community in Newark and myself are leaving the death and the struggles of people who have sacrificed their lives in Kelly Ingram Park in vain. I had to question whether I was taking my life seriously.
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The day after our visit to Kelly Ingram Park, we went to the
actual jail where Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his
famous "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" |
Your account provides such vivid imagery, it as though we are there.
ReplyDeleteYour experience sounds difficult but very worthwhile.
Thank you for writing about it so we who are not there can know, too.
With best regards -- Ms. MacPherson
Jules, you’ve always approached this class with an eye on your own community and I really appreciate that. I can’t wait to see what you do with this experience! Scan
ReplyDeleteAs we've discussed after our visits to these important historical places, we can honor the people who have made our present better by being better citizens and by doing what we can to point out and prevent race and social injustice wherever we see it. It's very much related to our motto: Whatever hurts my brother hurts me, and whatever helps my brother and sister helps me.
ReplyDeleteHow very profound. Sad. Yet motivational.
ReplyDeleteThank you for caring. And for sharing.