Biking Alabama

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The blue line on this progress map shows the Adventure Cycling Southern Tier route I initially planned to take. The green line shows my actual route including a few little diversions.

Day 32
Biking Alabama

My goal today was to ride the route of the Voting Rights March of 1965 from Selma to Montgomery, but Route 80 today is a very busy highway with lots of trucks and no shoulders, and not at all bike friendly. So I looked for an alternate route and found county road 40, which parallels the march route and I biked that route. It started out as a nice country road lined with trees, and I could smell honeysuckle along the way, and there was hardly any traffic. It led me through small farm towns, which were quite quaint in the Southern way, houses with front porches and rocking chairs, with big well cared for front yards, and nice, tidy farms. But after about 28 miles of biking, I ended up in what I would describe as Banjo Boy country. I had big dogs chasing me on the bike and it was very frightening. Fortunately, Michael was not far away with the SAG wagon and I aborted biking in Alabama. Alabama is a very pretty state, with rolling green hills, beautiful trees and miles and miles of wild flowers, which bloom from March through September.

This is Browns A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopel) chapel where Dr. Martin Luther King started the Voting Rights March on March 21, 1965. They marched 12 miles a day, sleeping in fields and reached the Alabama state capitol in Montgomery on March 25. 25,000 marchers made the trip. Although Congress passed the 15th amendment on February 26, 1869 giving African American men the equal right to vote, Alabama and other Southern states did not comply. Dallas county, where Selma is located was one of the worst offenders, which is why the Civil Rights Activists chose this as the starting point for the march.

This is the house in Montgomery, Alabama where Dr. Martin Luther King and his family lived from 1954 to 1960 during which he was the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. The house was bombed in 1956 when he returned from a bus boycott march.

This is the Harris house a few doors down the block where Dr. Harris opened his home to a group of 33 students from Nashville Tennessee. Known as the Freedom Riders, they were challenging the bus segregation practices during the time. Civil Rights leaders, including Dr. King used this house to develop plans and stategies, and to conduct prayer meetings.

The Dexter Avenue Baptist Church where Dr. King was pastor.

This is the capitol building in Montgomery where the march ended. It was also the first Capitol of the Confederacy when the Southern states ceceded from the union led by Jefferson Davis.

This is the 54-mile route the marchers used from Selma to Montgomery.