Hello everyone! Melissa here to share a bit about our third day of adventures in downtown Montgomery.
Today was yet another great and powerfully moving experience. We started the day by going to the first, and the only church, that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a pastor of: Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (referred to as Dexter Avenue Church throughout rest of post). The church has a beautiful mural in the basement depicting the Civil Rights Movement timeline. Images of Rosa Parks, The Black Panthers, the Selma Bridge, and children marching for justice filled the wall, signifying the multi-faceted approaches to the same goal of the Civil Rights Movement–unity in finding justice for all. The mural also depicted Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. ascending into heaven, as those who created the mural and attend the church believe that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a saint living among us.
From Dexter Avenue Church, we traveled a few short blocks to the Dexter Parsonage Museum where we had the opportunity to walk through the home that housed the pastors of Dexter Avenue Church, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr (here we are walking into the Parsonage). 
Many of the items within the home are from the time that the King family resided there and this is also the residence where an individual bombed the home during Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s involvement with the Civil Rights Movement. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. is credited with stopping a violent riot from occurring the night of the bombing by telling the angry group of people who had gathered that his family was not hurt, to go silently, and to go home. We learned that in the kitchen of this home Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once contemplated the decision to end his involvement with being a part of the movement because of the threats on himself and his family. However, as we are all well aware, he made the choice that he wanted to continue in his calling towards righteousness, justice, and freedom for all people.
The King-Johns Garden for Reflection, located behind the Parsonage Museum and home, offers a space for peaceful contemplation and recognizes two great leaders and ministers of Dexter Avenue Church–Vernon Johns and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Both of these men believed in direct action that would result in freedom through six common themes–equality, forgiveness, hope, peace, understanding, and unity.
Lastly, we journeyed back towards downtown Montgomery to see the state capitol and the confederate white house. We all reflected later on how it is difficult to process and appreciate the American history that occurred in these two places after visiting the places that Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. lived and preached in. We found it challenging to appreciate and understand what had occurred in these two locations, while simultaneously not agreeing with certain beliefs or point of views that were presented to us. Hiding the confederate history of our country would be denying the truths of the American history. And as we learned last night over dinner, telling truths is an important part in building an honest approach to understanding the background of events that occur within our past history.
As Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “I have decided to stick to love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”