a Black Sabbath album The Montgomery Mall with the some Christmas money that I had in

hotdogs when it seemed like it was the only thing open downtown it says it's a beautiful

complicated Place thankful to continue to know

my name is a gasket teachers I'm one of the owners of Chris's hotdogs and

my grandfather Chris Anastasia contagious

was a great camera came through Ellis Island settled here Montgomery started stand with

the hot dogs and brought the hot dogs here to Montgomery in here to Alabama

here on Dexter Avenue and he served president after you already came through here

on the train and then every time he came through Montgomery you get supporters about the box of hot dogs deliver

Hank Williams was in regular customer started coming when he was probably 13 14 years old

a kid to get too hot dogs and chocolate milk and Elder all the rumors were here

too hot dogs or hot dog guy shot and a beer and then he was

napkins and Ride lyrics some napkins in the restroom I also remember that he wrote a good looking

would end up with too much spirit in them and so we tell everybody to the last place stuff and Williams out

orders for George Wallace for George Wallace for one of his parties

to town to the catering order for him I want security guards steady watch to make 7 hot dogs at

on my big ass order was in 2016 wake cater the commissioning of the USS

an extra hundred for the Navy for the sale of the sailors on the boat gave it to them

we're about a block away from where Rosa Parks work and she would come

the Martin Luther King's church about Tupac's up the hill toward the capital and

Sunday and get the Sunday papers to Atlanta Constitution New York

a big sign the papers and he didn't come in on Sunday my grandfather would save them for him for when he came back in town

good friends and they talk about the problems they both had with the KKK

and blue red black and white red and green as long as you want his grain your friend of mine

cash register. I don't really care who you slept with who you voted for as long as you have green vaccine pockets all it really

one reason we have four hundred years to years leave all the politics alone and said

your customers on my walls you want to see any Auburn Alabama football memorabilia

reservation times for always allowed to come to the front door so

the restaurant that came through and where the hell were the nature stand was for the cash register and I stopped

the pet they gave him to go but that was not my choice my grandfather got threatened by the

5 kids and going to try to stay out of everybody everything and just do whatever could just keep his business going

the rare places on Market on Dexter Avenue that blacks come to the front door at that time

next street over Monroe with a black straight so a lot of businesses that were on

be on Dexter in the blockage would be on Monroe we would always lock the front door of my

tell the story to my customers at finish it up now where now I'm served to you

a couple more stories they would they met my gun Country Club in Montgomery and but then they would

many times they come here come to Chris's hotdogs for food late night

my name is Daniel Jenkins I grew up in Montgomery and throughout School

to a different place it makes you see the bigger bigger picture you see the harsh

you a sense of freedom it gives you the capability to be at peace because

the change that has happened although we still have a long way to go

at Chris's for 30 years I raise five kids in 05 my kids where he had

a lady name is Ruth Egan he curses and she taught me a lot she

told me that she told me Sylvia you learn everything you can cuz one

might come back to you and it did I will get the pack for 25 years

the front and I will definitely 12 years and I gotta be the manager of that

cook for their computers for the telephone company

cook for Weber's for you to four the water company we did all the cooking

cooking music come to work at 3 in the morning and where can we get all the

raise five kids here at crested Miss rooster me a lot she told me how

of the leadership of Miss Riley was nice to me too and then I wake

till they close Christmas down then I went back they called me back to work

a beer and maybe it was a nice person I really enjoy working

he did teach me that but he really help me out a lot things that I ask him to do

he did it if he ask me to do stuff for him I used to cook for him I used to do a lot of stuff

God that I was able to learn and do a lot and this story is

a lady named Eli Gordon have a good David Dickerson and I wake with a lady named Helen

together we used to help each other out if I'm late doing some she'll come down and help me

each other and one day she called me she said I'm working at another job now but the folks don't do

yours so you just get that in mind everybody is not like Sylvia do you like call

this is Sylvia story when I started with necrosis the latest there black people to

there they had to eat on Monroe speak and then the lady three of the

hold your hands together and it won't let the Broncos eat there then all of a sudden a

his neighbor mr. farmer Farmer told him to go to work leave me

me people eat this apartment made a change in Crescent and that's what I like about mr.

made me feel well just like you made the other people still working and this is my story and

with necklace that I wake him for 30 years and you know I must have enjoyed working the wake me up for 30

at 3254 Aylesbury Road in Montgomery Alabama and I

you read my story and you listen to me you have a blessed day and may God

is a story about Charlie Harris senior he was my dad and he told me the story of

during the bus boycott he had his own car and he would tell stories about how he would use his car to

people during the boycott and it meant a lot to me to know that he was in

such a historic moment here Montgomery Alabama and I appreciate the Legacy that he passed

us so we love him and we thank him we appreciate

Crest my mother Sylvia Davis work here as well the story

from the capitol down Dexter Avenue and it was quite an experience

all I didn't I didn't know how to say scared

the news at the time that the local class was supposed to be charged but they

barge with the hoods on their face and they couldn't get the permit to do

of course the local classement didn't say when it got class Miss

the state stand in for them in their faces

see them from from the register and it when they first when it first came into view

me I didn't know what to expect I didn't know what they were going to try to harm harm me

what but there were a lot of blacks in a lot of being back being standing in front of the

didn't have any incident as a result of a barge

about 16 17 year old years old when that happened I remember like it was yesterday

and I didn't know what to expect so that's my story and

remember my mother came to me and was like hey let's go downtown Montgomery and in my head I was like

kids really nothing much for us to do but you know the museums around the area

up in front of the Davis Theater and there was a big crowd around going inside the building

get up to the front and we couldn't get in because we didn't have tickets we weren't

if we can get in and I still have no idea what we were trying to see but my mom was so adamant about

a part of the The Experience there and for sure

the rear of the building mom was like hey let's just wait here I promise what I'm going to show you

it and at that moment it was weather was like really really bad and I remember the

to pick up and I just couldn't believe like Mom why why we waiting out

this one day or you remember for forever and the rain was coming heavy or getting heavier and worse

some moment the rain just stopped and I remember this vehicle pulled up in I can see a

seen some things and I saw her her kind of her face in her sunglasses

smiled and looked at my mom and I and my mom said that

a minute you mean Rosa Parks like the lady didn't give up her seat on the bus the one that I read

why I see you around town even streets are named after her and

a lecture that she had just given at t s u m and there I was this sixth grader with his mom

looking at history and I'll never forget that day

my mom and I me being a biracial child and my mom being white and

the corner she made history always wonder what she thought and I'll never forget that

hello my name is George Howell I grew up in Montgomery I was born here November

and Chris's and all the stores up and down on Monroe Street

watering trough for horses that were still horses and wagons in the 50s when I was a child

watering trough on the Monroe Street side on the Southeast

off Monroe on Perry Street in the sixties the best record store in this town

the back entrance to Sears where they had baby chicks and chainsaws that my father used

also had their automobile shop I think it was across Monroe Street from there I

the street was the Pekin quick lunch I remember seeing the theater

Monroe at Court Street that there was some sort of open-air fish market

be the man with the wagons in the horses selling vegetables to people passing by on the street

the door of Evans Cafe number to write out in the Monroe Street

on Court Street and it faced up Monroe I believe and it came from the Jukebox

right next door to Todd gun store that had the big gun up over the entrance to the

were crossed over the entrance to Todd's Gun Shop Monroe Street was a very busy place in those

town with my father and he would meet his logging crew somewhere downtown usually at the Goodyear

have done the week before and some of them would go to Monroe Street to the clubs in the

a place where people from all walks of life came together and they list of the

their money and it was just a slice of life in Montgomery Alabama in the fifties and sixties

here in the 21st century in downtown Montgomery I'm still here and I'll plan to be here a long time

spent my summers in Montgomery from the ages of 7 through 11

Street she had a companion caregiver his name with Lena

the bus from Yarbrough Street to downtown Montgomery to go to the Farmers

the dime stores Cross was one of our favorite places I remember standing in the water line and

taylena because we left her so much and my grandmother would say no you can't stand in that

the bus coming to Montgomery my grandmother would sit in the last seat of the white section

the first seat of the black section and my sister and I would run up and down the aisles of the

12 and since then I left the city for four years

changes their happening here and you know there's always tension by I

always tension there is there are people who are still stuck on their own

you know older generation also who believe in the city who believe in the

forward and I was really exciting to be in Montgomery right now as an

sort of like a a boiling soup in the way the rest of the

its reputation but I really wish that the rest of the

that dark history but here we are now living in

I was trying to reconciliate and trying to

the past and it is it is not my past I'm a transplant

at the same time this is the issue that is also close to my heart because I

Indonesia because my family was Chinese Indonesian there were

there Buddhist Christians and they were targeted and so I I

and you know I said as an artist I think that's something important

just in Montgomery not just Indonesia parts of Europe also happen

water are collective differences and how can that Collective differences create a

the openness of ideas and or the exchange of ideas that I see now in Montgomery

deceased now but he used to tell me stories about Montgomery and how the section of land which we live

almost everything used to be farmland he was going to detail about them in the

about the civil rights movement and also how one of the members of the main people inside the party went to our

just in case I'm not cracked I'm here tonight with Booker T Washington High School do I attend and

crater and we had a poetry reading tonight all I can share with my poems because

to do Alabama project last year this is why. Obama's new house down by the river

the river down down down down down by the river Hanky Panky you Boucher Boucher

my brother smells like King Kong Gatsby's Landing that River the same trees that are ancestors

her older brother until he fell down bring her reminder

each branch becoming a lash on his face and reminding her of her ancestors passed

the water Cascades on the Rocks she sees her afloat this pool is

always believed he could fly but she screams climbing down the

the scene banging on the punishing nature for not being mentoring this is a quiet town where the

it screams crying of course of Agony while trees weep unforgiving of their branches that were used for

on the same tree that they use for playing a crow doesn't care about that she took the

her a ride on his back but the river took him to a new home better non-racist

the river that her brother found he said his body submerged she Paints the scene

the trees trees never stop crying thank you for

from Montgomery and I've been down here with a sake Shakespeare

and I've enjoyed this activity very much but the

Montgomery in 1963 my father was a lifelong

had lots of family down in Butler County and my mother was born in Tennessee

Birmingham later and went to college in Birmingham my father at 17

went back down to Butler County and finish High School and then went to college where he met my

then he became an officer in the army I had what I think of is a very

times and on Military facilities where the

new people and felt comfortable to change and then we went in

eight years old and in the third grade moving to the South although my parents were from the south was a

my parents use pejorative terms racist terms

and in my father's mine anyone who worked hard and sacrifice for the

and when I came here it was the George Wallace era there was a

done I have never been around it I have never I didn't understand it

I was at an elementary school here in Montgomery that fall when John Kennedy

out of the school and as soon as we walked out the front doors people

know excited that Kennedy had been shot but today again

look forward and I saw my mother's car I was normally a bus student and I said

ride home on the bus hearing all that because I knew that

home with that kind of language in Celebration obviously my

devastated my mother was devastated I was devastated our whole family but that was not the exact same

so that year you know I managed to get through that year and I didn't hate being here I made

understand racism and never will and then my father was

Fort Benning in Georgia where we again lived on a military facility

were two years of bliss really for me and that was

of the most active periods of the civil rights movement that was

right in the middle of a lot of what we know of as a civil Civil Rights Movement

about it that I got to see it and I did not see the vitriol after

the 5th grade my dad was into Vietnam and we moved back to the move back to Montgomery

that time I was a little older I was more mature and I was more aware of what's going

not understand the racism and the cruelty way you know what kind of model Don

about why people do what they do and what is their history and what is their

had grown up in an environment where all the kids were knew

a friend you know when you're in military housing people come and go all the time and people are opening

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