Birmingham III

My last day in Birmingham, Alabama is met with such sorrow as it's almost time to leave. I really enjoyed my history lessons here soooo much...although it made me angry at times, but it was much needed and appreciated.

I ended up doing a repeat from the day before, which is to start out again downtown on 6th Avenue at the 16th Street Baptist Church, site of the September 15, 1963 Ku Klux Klan Church bombing where four young black girls were killed. From there I wanted to do a tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, but I was there an hour before they opened and didn't get the chance to go back. I walked past the statue of Fred L. Shuttlesworth while heading across the street to Kelly Ingram Civil Rights Memorial Park. Again, I walked past Elizabeth MacQueen's "The Four Spirits" sculpture, which is dedicated to the four young girls killed at the 16th Street Baptist Church. I stopped to photograph Carlo Roppa's statue of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. again, as I make my way towards the "Freedom Walk".

Along the "Freedom Walk" in the park you'll see James Drake's powerful "Jailed Children: Children's March" statue, depicting a young boy and girl behind bars. "I Ain't Afraid Of Your Jail" is inscribed on the front, lower part of the back monolith of the two-part statue. Ronald "Mac" McDowell's "The Foot Soldier" sculpture depicts a young boy being attacked by a police officer and his dog...(The original photo from where the sculpture comes from is much different from the statue). The next sculpture along the walk is James Drake's "Police Dog Attack" sculpture, which depicts police attack dogs lunging and attempting to bite you as you walk through the piece. James Drake's "Fire Hosing" sculpture is next showing two people trying to brace themselves from being water hosed.

From there, I drive further into downtown and walk around a bit. I photographed the Alabama Theatre, The McWane Science Center and a row of Zyp Bikeshare bicycles. Next I head up to Vulcan Park to see and photograph Giuseppe Moretti's "Vulcan Statue", which is the largest cast iron statue in the world and is the city symbol of Birmingham, Alabama. From atop the park, the views are great giving me nice, sweeping photos of the Birmingham skyline. After leaving the park, I drove past The University of Alabama at Birmingham where I saw a cool postcard-type mural "It's Nice To Have You In Birmingham". I also saw a New York Yankees mural on the side of the Historic Wininger Law Firm building that was worth photographing. As my day nears the end, I remembered that Michael Jordan played minor league baseball with the Birmingham Barons. So I drove over to Regions Field to check out the stadium. Of course they were closed, but it was nice seeing the stadium, anyway. My last stop of the day was Rickwood Field, the oldest professional baseball park in the United States. When I got there, they were preparing for a game but I got permission to photograph inside.