In this final installment of our four part series (that features the adventures of Mitchell and Michelle who have traveled back in time due to the magical and mysterious powers of Aunt Daisy’s Dramatic Dream Bed), they have experienced a quantum leap into the future. The year is 1956 and the place is Montgomery, Alabama. Something is about to happen that will become the catalyst for a movement that will change America.
The Woman Who Would Not Give Up Her Seat
When last we read about our time travelers, they were in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in the year of 1786 at St. George’s Methodist Church in the midst of a racial conflict in the church’s balcony. Aunt Daisy’s Dramatic Dream Bed had quickly snatched them out of that historical scenario and set them on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. They were seated in the back of the bus with all the other Blacks except one little fair-complexioned woman who wore glasses. Being one of the first to enter the bus, she sat in a seat near the front where only Whites were supposed to sit because of Jim Crow Laws. As people, both White and Black, entered the bus they were very surprised to see this Black woman seated in a section near the front in a seat designated for Whites only. This woman, to many people of both races, was either crazy or very courageous and putting forth an act of protest and defiance against a common practice of Jim Crow. The woman who was causing all the disturbance on the bus was a seamstress named Mrs. Rosa Parks. This was not her first demonstration against this racist rule. However, it would be the most important one that would incite a city-wide bus boycott that would be the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement in America and thrust this little Black seamstress forever in the hearts of her people and history as the Mother of the Movement. Mitchell and Michelle watched from their seats, in the back where colored people sat, as police officers came onto the bus and handcuffed the little Black woman who gave no physical or verbal resistance to the men who took her to jail. Perhaps had they known what this seemingly routine incident was about to stir up, they would have left her alone on this particular day. No sooner than when this historical incident was over and the bus pulled away, the twins quickly fell asleep just to awaken a few years into the future, still in the state of Alabama.
The Blast That Was
Heard Around the World
Once again, they found themselves in a church setting as they had done in Philadelphia during the days of Richard Allen and Absalom Jones. Howbeit, this was the twentieth century and the year was 1963. The historical event that was about to unfold would happen in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The church had become the meeting place where people in the NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and other civil rights advocates met to strategize. Unlike the church in Philadelphia, where the majority of the members were White and occupied the bottom part of the sanctuary, this was a church populated by African Americans. Mitchell and Michelle sat among them as the worship service was in progress. Sixteenth Street Baptist Church had a pretty large membership and had a reputation for being active in the community. Apart from being on the front line of social and political activism through organizing voter registration efforts, they were a benevolent church that reached out to help people who were destitute and needy. Their church was blessed to have many young people, both boys and girls of various ages, as members. At any given time on Sunday mornings and even during the weekday services, the pews of this church would have children scattered throughout the congregation focused and involved in the services. Regrettably, something was about to happen on this faithful day that would forever change Sixteenth Street Baptist and make it an iconic place of history. Unbeknown to the people who had gathered for worship on this particular day, someone had secretly planted a time bomb within the sanctuary and timed it to explode at the hour when it would kill and injure as many people as possible. The culprits behind this evil scheme were motivated by hatred and bigotry and had no concern at all for the loss of life, especially if they were Black. As the hidden explosives ticked almost silently away towards detonation, Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley (who were all fourteen years old), and Carol Denise McNair (who was only eleven years old) had no idea that something very tragic was about to transpire.
Something that would both claim their young lives and crown them as martyrs of the struggle for Civil Rights and equality. At the very moment of the explosion, in an instant, Mitchell and Michelle were once again miraculously transported in time to what would be the final event of their journey through time. They would traverse thirteen days back in time to August 28, 1963, and witness in person one of the greatest speeches in the annals of American history.
I Have
A Dream
Suddenly, appearing out of nowhere, Mitchell and Michelle found themselves in a sea of people who had gathered on the National Mall. It is estimated that there were over one quarter of a million people standing there and facing the Lincoln Memorial as the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. captivated and mesmerized this myriad of people with his most famous speech entitled, “I Have a Dream”. Mitchell and Michelle, who were as spellbound by the crowd as they were by Dr. King’s speech, were like two little specks in this vast sea of humanity. Aunt Daisy’s Dramatic Dream Bed had positioned them in a spot close to the front of the great gathering on the National Mall where there was no one blocking their view. As Dr. King progressed in his speech, they were privileged to know what he would say before he said it. Having being made to memorize the famous message by their parents, they were able to recite it in a whisper that caught the attention of a few observant people who stood close to them. Nevertheless, nothing could compare with being there seeing and listening to this great apostle of nonviolence and Civil Rights as he uttered one of the greatest speeches in American history. When Dr. King had finished speaking, the twins miraculously and suddenly vanished in the same way they had showed up to this historical event.
Awakening from their journey through time and experiencing and witnessing strategic events in Black History, they discovered that they were on Aunt Daisy’s Dramatic Dream Bed where their adventure had begun. In somewhat of a dazed state like anyone who awakens from a sleep, they saw both their mother and Aunt Daisy staring at them with a big smile.
When Michelle looked at her little wristwatch, she was astounded that their entire adventure and journey back in time had only lasted for two hours. In that short span, they had obtained a lifetime of experience and education in Black History, but more importantly, American History. Their lives would never be the same. As they left Aunt Daisy’s house, she assured them that this was just the beginning of many more adventures and journeys back in time, which they clung to with great anticipation.
