Sam is looking up at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, where on a Sunday morning in 1963, the Ku Klux Klan firebombed the church, killing four young girls. Sam has read about it, but even face to face with where it happened, he can't quite believe it.

A television set near the altar continuously shows a documentary video of the events of that day. We watch it with two middle-aged black couples. When it's over, people clear their throats or glance down at the floor, not sure of what to say or do.

Sam and I go downstairs to the basement where the girls had been preparing to sing in the choir. There is a small room dedicated to their memory with flowers and pictures. We walk through quietly.

MONTGOMERY
Montgomery is the self-proclaimed birthplace of the Civil War and capital of the Confederacy. The capital of Alabama, it served as the Confederacy's capital for the first few months of its existence and its capitol building is where, in 1861, Jefferson Davis served as president of the Confederate States of America. Around the corner from the capitol is the first Confederate White House.

Just down the street is the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor from 1954 to 1960 and where the Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched. The red brick church, which holds roughly 400 people, looks almost like a house. A fenced staircase trails up its sides to its raised front door. With lamps hanging from the ceiling and a drum set in the corner, it has an easygoing, comfortable vibe.

Several blocks away is the new Rosa Parks Library and Museum. It's located at the very bus stop where Parks refused to give up her seat, an act that led to the city's bus boycott and ultimately to the civil rights movement.