Time past really fast when you are having fun. It has been weeks before my last entry and a lot have happened in that few weeks. On the Sunday after the Chinese New Year dinner, we had an organized tour by the school to Birmingham city in Alabama. It is one of those city with a rich history especially in the area of the civil rights movement. This is the town where the bus boycott took place after Ms. Rosa Parks refuse to give up her seat in the white section in the bus. It is common practice for segregation of black and white at that time. It was the pioneers in this town who took the lead in changing this prevailing injustice. The most prominent figure in this massive movement is Martin Luther King Jr and his early grassroots movement in this town marked the start of his entire journey to free the blacks. Our first stop was to a house owned by one of the pioneers who was part of the movement. He showed us snapshots of the events that happened in the town. After a little tour, he hosted us to lunch and it was a nice home cooked meal.

After lunch, we headed down to the museum showcasing the civil rights movement in Birmingham, the south eastern US and also the US at large. It was a really meaningful experience as we got to see the exhibits and real video footage of the civil rights movement. It shows the brutality rendered towards the black and also the courage of how they fought back with their perseverance and words. The whole exhibit culminated with the historic speech made by Martin Luther King in Washington with over 200,000 people in attendance. I particularly like the phrase where he said, "I have a dream, a dream of the day when our children would be judge not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character!" It must have given so much hope to all the African Americans at that time. He is a natural leader!

The next stop was to the Sloss iron processing plant. The town prospered largely due to the discovery of large amount of iron ore deposits found in the ground. An entrepreneur started the plant and it has only been recently closed down after all the iron ore has been depleted. It is now refurbished as a museum showcasing the history of the town which is closely linked to the metal works industry. The remnant of the old chimneys, furnaces and even the trains used to transport the iron ore was scattered around the whole compound. It has a nice nostalgic feeling to it because of the old buildings and equipment lying around. The factory has seen its prime come and go.

The towering Chimney.... it could have been 10 storey high up!

A piece of really old equipment... it was all rusted down to the bolts and nuts! The tunnels beneath the ground where all the iron ore is excavated.