Reflections on Montgomery, Alabama

In late June 2024, a group of ten Coronado and San Diego residents took a 24-hour trip to Montgomery, Alabama, coordinated in conjunction with the Coronado Historical Association. The group, known as the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition, went to visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) Legacy Sites, including the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, which honors victims of racial terror lynchings. The trip was in preparation for an upcoming remembrance ceremony that will be held in honor of Coronado resident Alton Collier, who was the victim of a racial terror lynching in 1946.

Born in Luling, Texas, in 1920, Alton Collier moved to Coronado in 1944. He first worked as a cement worker at Naval Air Station North Island, and later worked for the Hotel Del Coronado doing cement finishing work as a Union member of the American Federation of Labor. At approximately 8:20 p.m., on Saturday, April 27th, 1946, Collier boarded the ferry in Coronado to pick up some items from Ferris’s Department Store in downtown San Diego before returning to his residence on Alameda Blvd. Soon after the ferry departed, Collier was violently pursued by two Naval Reserve sailors, Freddie Leroy Johnson and Otis Reed Gilbert.

The altercation ended with Alton Collier being thrown overboard. Despite witness statements that he cried for help, the ferry threw a life ring but did not stop. On May 4th, a week after the incident, Collier’s body washed ashore on North Island, Coronado. The incident was reported as a “suicidal” drowning by the coroner. Collier’s wife, Georgia, later filed suit in San Diego Superior Court, suing The San Diego & Coronado Ferry Co. as well as her husband’s assailants. The court case was dismissed on July 1, 1948, “with prejudice as to all defendants.” Johnson and Gilbert never faced any criminal charges.

Alton Collier’s story was first researched by local historian Kevin Ashley, who published his findings on Substack. Later, Collier’s story was shared in the Coronado Historical Association’s exhibit, An Island Looks Back: Uncovering Coronado’s Hidden AfricanAmerican History. Thanks to Ashley’s research, Collier has been added to EJI’s Lynching in America report. At the remembrance event, soil from the ferry landing will be collected and sent to the Legacy Museum to be displayed in a jar alongside soil that represents more than 800 other lynching victims from across the United States. The following reflections come from members of the Coalition who traveled to Montgomery this summer.

Maria Grant:

The voices I heard at the EJI sites in Alabama continue to echo and reverberate, even as I have returned home to enclave Coronado. The Legacy Sites told the truth of America, from the impacts on Indigenous people, who were forcibly removed from their lands via the Trail of Tears, to the extensive horrors of slavery through which 13 million African people were kidnapped, forced onto ships, and trafficked across the Atlantic Ocean. Walking through actual quarters where enslaved people lived, now standing adjacent to beautiful works of African and African American art created by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo and Kehinde Wiley, laid bare history in a heart-wrenching, profound way.

Seeing jars filled with soil from locations where named black people were lynched, drowned, and beaten solely because of the color of their skin, juxtaposed with installations that conveyed the crimes of segregation and the injustices of modern-day incarcerations, underscored the thread of racism that runs through human actions, institutions, and events, even today. This experience, while in many instances stark, sad, and solemn, clarified the imperative goal of working for racial and restorative justice. Also, of great note — the works of art created by black artists that are showcased at the EJI sites are exquisite and bring to light the creativity, talent, and insights that we should all know about. The very existence of The Legacy Sites, open to any person who wants to learn and grow, gives me hope that through understanding and concerted effort, we can continue our forward moves. Alongside a visit to the EJI sites, I highly recommend a quiet walk across the Pettus Bridge as a way to both commemorate past heroes and to invigorate personal justice efforts. This experience will impact my work as an educator and will influence my own daily moves — today and always.

Seth Mallios:

As a San Diego State anthropology professor who has dedicated decades of his professional career to the archaeology and history of race relations in America, I was thrilled to be invited as part of the Coronado Community Remembrance Coalition to visit the EJI legacy sites. It had been over 25 years since I had last been to Alabama, and the Montgomery landscape has recently been transformed with EJI’s Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. Each is brilliantly constructed, impactful for visitors on a deeply personal level, and transformative about how Americans must come to terms with the historical realities and current ramifications of race-based slavery, segregation, and incarceration… wherever we live.

That EJI could make Montgomery, Alabama—the former capital of the Confederacy, a city that historically witnessed hundreds of thousands of enslaved individuals pass through its streets (in 1860, 66% of its population was enslaved!), and a modern-day state capital that still teems with markers, monuments, and other misleading messages of the Lost Cause—is astounding. Montgomery is now a beacon for freedom.

That EJI could make Montgomery, Alabama—the former capital of the Confederacy, a city that historically witnessed hundreds of thousands of enslaved individuals pass through its streets (in 1860, 66% of its population was enslaved!), and a modern-day state capital that still teems with markers, monuments, and other misleading messages of the Lost Cause—is astounding. Montgomery is now a beacon for freedom.

My lasting takeaway from this trip is simple: if they can do it in Montgomery, we can do it anywhere. And if we can do it anywhere, then we should do it everywhere.

Dr. Fern Nelson:

Black female going to the Deep South? Thank you, but no. This had been my lifetime stance until going to Montgomery and Selma with the Coronado Historical Association. Now I feel that every American, of all races, ages, creeds, identifications, and otherwise, MUST go. It should be mandatory. With knowledge based on irrefutable evidence housed in beauty and grace, presented in a non-threatening and understandable manner, America may be able to become whole and live up to her lofty goals.

Had my ancestors been sold from the very auction block that I stand on now? Is that my great-grandfather cowed and in chains? Do I hear the screams of my Auntie in labor begging for help? I am a child of those that survived.

These are the places that you must visit: Montgomery Greyhound station, Rosa Parks Library and Museum, Dexter Ave King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage Museum, Civil Rights Memorial & Center, Alabama Department of Archives and History, Equal Justice Initiative, Legacy Pavilion and Museum, and walk the Edmund Pettus bridge.

Rocky Stone:

The trip was a good reminder that while we’ve come a long way with race relations in the U.S., we still have a long way to go. It is important to acknowledge the injustice faced by African Americans throughout our nations history. These injustices have pervaded to this very day. As a people, we need to be aware of and acknowledge these injustices. Only by acknowledging the atrocities experienced by people like Alton Collier can we begin to move forward to a more inclusive and just culture.

David Grant-Williams:

Visiting the Legacy Museum, National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Freedom Monument Sculpture Park brought a whole new perspective to the topic of slavery and inequality in America. The Legacy Museum told the whole story of slavery in America and tied in how it effects modernday black people, especially when it comes to mass incarceration. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice gives some closure to lynching victims through acknowledgment and shows that there are still needed efforts to be made to recognize many more forgotten victims.

The murder of Alton Collier, former resident of Coronado, will be the third recognized California lynching by the Equal Justice Initiative, which sounds like a very low number given how many people have lived in California over the last 150 years. The Sculpture Park shows how modern-day black artists interpret the impacts and effects of slavery and also offers moving personal accounts from former slaves. A common positive detail that was implemented into all these sites was the color orange. Orange is known as a symbol of optimism and happiness. The curators of the Legacy Sites successfully conveyed the morbid effects of slavery, but they also made a concerted effort to tell the stories of leaders that have made it their life’s work to reverse these effects. If I should take away only one thing from this trip, it’s that there are still massive hurdles for us all to overcome.

Asante Sefa-Boakye:

There were many moments in Montgomery where it was difficult to smile. The time spent witnessing the history and hearing the stories of those that resemble myself, my peers, and even my family members are what especially grounded me as a human and an African-American man. My deep connections to the United States and to the African Continent brought many conflicting realizations of the suffering and resilience we have endured on a global scale. It was a blessing to be invited on this trip and a blessing to share this experience with all of the bright souls and supporters who made it all possible.

I frequently found myself entering deep states of reflection while passing through the roads of Alabama, while walking through the EJI Legacy Museums and Memorials, and from standing at the historic bridge in Selma where our people endured so much torture, turmoil, and injustice. As hard as it was to sit with these emotions, my only solution was to remember to walk in gratitude that my people have still come so far and still choose to contribute so much beauty to our communities.

Despite all the darkness we have endured, my smile lies in the reality that people like my fellow Coronado and San Diego residents, as well as organizations such as the EJI and the Coronado Historical Association, choose to be on the side of history that aims to both do, and be, better as a people. I smile because it is those people that persevere the faith, and the hope that our future will be brighter than our past ever was. I smile because there are still people today that recognize justice, and choose to tell the stories of those worthy of recognition that have tragically passed on. Montgomery was a moving experience that I am so grateful to have been a part of.

Yvette Porter Moore:

Arriving at the Legacy Sites in Montgomery and experiencing the historical interactive exhibits of chattel slavery, lynching, racial terror, discrimination, the civil rights movement, police violence, and the plight of the Black Africans of America in less than 24 hours was overwhelming, to say the least. I walked away with more than two semesters of Black History Studies in a short amount of time.

Being born on April 8, 1968, is significant. I was born four days after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. I was adopted on August 8, 1968, because my biological grandparents were racist, and my birthmother was not allowed to bring a black child home. I was raised by my parents, who both experienced racism and discrimination and advocated for the right to live in predominately white neighborhoods outside of the redlined communities and worked in the educational system to ensure that people of color had the same opportunities as those who went to schools in the more affluent neighborhoods. Because people fought for our rights to have more than what my ancestors had, I have benefitted by not having to experience what they had to endure and have been afforded the opportunities of a better life.

Our purpose for visiting the Legacy Sites was to go to the Legacy Museum to see the soil samples representing the African Americans who were lynched in the South and other areas of the U.S. Each jar held the soil from the location in which the person had been murdered. On the jar, their name and location were labeled on the outside. We were here to honor Alton Collier, who had been murdered on the Coronado Ferry by two white Navy sailors who got away with racial terror and murder. We went to prepare ourselves for the moment in which we honor and remember Mr. Collier for his life that was taken before his natural time.

As I walked through each legacy site, I felt lots of emotion. I was sad, angry, and thoughtful, and I imagined what my own ancestors had to endure. Two exhibits that I could personally identify with were the memorial of the large bell-like artifacts hanging that represented lynchings of individuals. On these large structures, the name of the county and state were engraved along with the person’s name. I saw familiar names and locations where my ancestors resided, and I could only imagine these people may have been related to or being known by my ancestors. I felt the same way when I saw the large outside walls before leaving the Sculpture Garden of those who had been enslaved. So many surnames that are connected to my ancestry were on that wall. Some surnames such as Culley, Porter, and Paulette were there. We all have been affected by chattel slavery, one way or another.

We cannot separate ourselves from this time in history. We cannot separate ourselves from America’s stain of racial terror. We either stand for it or against it. We cannot be silent. We must stand up for justice and truth. Truth to tell the whole story, not just what feels good. We had the opportunity to walk the famous Edmund Bridge that Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and many other well-known civil rights leaders crossed so that all people would have the right to vote. To think that where we stood and walked that history was made in that same spot.

I am grateful to the Coronado Historical Association for organizing this trip and helping some of us to get to Montgomery to learn about the history that many will not learn about in school. These museums opened my eyes to the reality that history is not always sweet. However, if we know our history, we are less likely to repeat that which is negative.