Alabama: A Visit to the Rosa Parks Museum

While visiting Montgomery, Alabama recently, we came upon the Rosa Parks Museum and Children's Wing and stopped to explore and learn about the Mother of the Freedom Movement in the U.S. (Read a brief biography of Mrs. Parks here.)

The museum sits on the spot where Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955. Destined to be a parking structure in the 1990s, Troy University recognized how many people were visiting the historical marker there and fundraised to build a museum instead. Parks and her family were a part of the opening on December 1, 2000 - 45 years after her arrest.

Logistics

The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

Park for free anywhere on the university campus. We parked on the street and fed $1 into the meter. Admission is $14 per adult and $10 per child for the combined museums - bring your AAA card for a discount.

Start Your Visit

Purchase tickets at the main museum, then head next door to the Children's Wing to start your tour with a ride on the Cleveland Avenue Time Machine. Mr. Rivets, the robot driver, takes passengers on a 22-minute adventure through time, examining topics like Jim Crow, the civil war, and slavery in an approachable way that opened the door for conversations without being overwhelming.

The journey ends with the day Rosa Parks boarded the Cleveland Avenue bus, then sends riders to the main museum to learn what happened, and how that day would start a cascade of events that changed history.

The Museum

The museum also contained multimedia exhibits which told the story of Ms. Parks and the day that changed history so much. You can see a virtual tour of the museum here, but it really doesn't do the little museum justice!

I appreciated that there were no assumptions made about what visitors might have already known about the fight for equal rights or the culture in the south in the 50s. Exposing our children to the stories of those who came before us is an important piece of the picture.

We had a guided tour, moving through the cascade of events that started with Mrs. Parks refusing to give up her seat and rolling into the bus boycott and the rise of Dr. Martin Luther King.

One of the parts both of our kids brought up later was how cool it was to have a guide who was really "part of" the movement. She spoke with passion and personal knowledge in a way you just don't get from a book or a movie.

There are really heavy themes, which can be a lot for kids to process all at once. We didn't force the issue, instead allowing our five-year-old to engage as she felt appropriate and unplug a little when she didn't feel as comfortable.

I wasn't sure how much of it she had absorbed until bed time when she called Daddy to tell him about her day. She told him the story of Rosa Parks and her arrest for not giving up her seat on the bus - but she also told him about why Mrs. Parks wasn't allowed to remain sitting, what she was supposed to have done, and why it was wrong.

"They shouldn't be able to make laws like that," she said. "Your body, your choices."

Children have an amazing ability to understand their world when given opportunity to see it and feel it. I highly recommend the museum as a stop on any Alabama itinerary. It was well worth the time, and has started some excellent, though-provoking discussions in our family.

What other great museums have you been to that tell the story of the Civil Rights movement? Tell us about them in the comments!