Spring Break - Atlanta: Civil Rights Museum, Coca Cola Museum, Atlanta Hawks Basketball Game

 Thursday morning we drove two hours east to Atlanta. Our first stop was the Civil Rights Museum. It felt like I was walking among the pages of a history textbook or the Eyes on the Prize documentary. The primary sources they used to assembly the exhibits were really interesting, but it felt lacking in additional artifacts. I think it did do a great job of highlighting a large number of people who were involved in the Civil Rights Movement and also how women were often doing the work but marginalized from leadership. Upstairs there was a great exhibit on the Reconstruction Era and the rise of Jim Crow. It had a fantastic feature dedicated to the work of anti-lynching writer and activist, Ida B. Wells as well as a gallery dedicated to Global Human Rights.

Across the plaza sits the Coca Cola Museum, which is an interesting juxtaposition of corporate America with the ongoing struggle for civil rights. Anyhoo - I didn't particularly care for the commercialism on this museum and how it made visitors enter different segments in certain ways that seemed to take a long time rather than letting visitors experience the museum on their own. It did have a couple cool sections - a tasting room to try sodas from all over the world (watermelon from Panama is my favorite), a scent lab, a computer to generate your own flavor of soda, and oddly enough, a music DJ area where Reed got to make his own soundtrack. We also saw the Coke Bear which is a little creepy in person. 

After all that - we were apparently still looking for more fun. So I bought last-minute tickets to the Atlanta Hawks v. New York Knicks playoff basketball game (round 1, game 3, series tied 1-1). The State Farm Arena is right downtown adjacent to the Centennial Plaza that houses the museums as well as where our hotel was located. We walked over and found ourselves in the middle of an exciting basketball experience. Everyone had a Hawks t-shirt on their seat upon walking in. We ended up getting seats in a specially designated section of the game with some perks like fan towels. There were some celebrities in the house, including Soulja Boy who performed a couple songs at halftime - this was a total surprise to us and Reed said, "That was unexpected...." as it all went down. We learned Hawks have a tradition similar to the Mariners - but it was chicken burgers parachuted from the rafters courtesy of Chik-Fil-A. The Hawks led most of the game, but the Knicks gained and even took the lead in the final minutes. Luckily the Hawks scored in the last 15 seconds and won by one point! Woo Hoo! 

Freedom Riders