Her name was Miss Twyla Dixon, and she runs a thrift shop/gift store at the foot of the Edmund Pettis Bridge. We almost didn’t stop at Twyla’s place, but we needed a place to get our bearings before deciding whether to walk the bridge that led from West Selmont across the Alabama River into Selma in a heat that took our breath away. As we were busy making a plan, a small car that was bright and loud filled from floor to ceiling with hoola-hoops, kids’ scooters, and other toys of all shapes and sizes rolled in, and Miss Twyla greeted us as she came out of her car.
“What are y’all doin’ here?” she asked, and thus began one of the most formative conversations of our trip. It wasn’t planned. It wasn’t expected, but it was a moment of pure grace.
Miss Twyla’s parents and grandparents witnessed the march from Selma to Montgomery, a 4-day, 54-mile walk on US Highway 80. Twyla’s presence, her stories, her welcome, and her history lessons will reverberate in our hearts and minds for the rest of our lives.
She explained what it was like to be a child in the 1960s in Selma. Her grandmother was a maid, and Twyla said that they were treated well, but others weren’t so lucky. She gave us a beautiful history lesson on why, when President Obama offered to rename the bridge after John Lewis, he declined the invitation (ask some of our kids about this, and I’m sure many of them will tell you the answer).
Miss Twyla inspired and changed each of us. While there are so many more stories to tell of our time in Alabama and Georgia, this one is perhaps the most memorable. I’ll share more in the coming weeks about our time at Ebenezer Baptist and the King Museum in Atlanta, the amazing sites at the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, and our afternoon at the Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham.
Pastor Stephanie Friesen