Clay doesn't paint Birmingham in a rosy way. There is no glorification of the steel city's tumultuous path taken to present time nor is there any room for it in his stories. What Clay does is provide visitors from all over the world a unique perspective into the Civil Rights struggle that was endured for over 100 years, and whose mark is still felt all over today.
Birmingham is arduous to navigate around solo, let alone without a car. The tour efficiently takes you around all of Birmingham, touching upon the racial divide separating blacks and the iconic 16th street Baptist Church from whites in their Bull Connor led neighborhoods.
Clay jumpstarts the journey with tales of how visionary and brave men, Reverend Shuttlesworth and MLK, stood steadfast against the monster which was citywide intolerance and bigotry. You're driven through racially divided neighborhoods and only start to understand just how the odds were stacked against the Freedom Riders and the brave men, women and children who marched on the streets, as water cannons and dogs were unleashed on them in blind and unjustifiable rage.
This tour doesn't exist to revel you with cherry tidbits of Birmingham's transformation from a steel titan into a dying, and then, dead city. It exists to enlighten you about the roles and actions of unheralded heroes who unwaverably faced up with the Bull Connor and George Wallace institutionalized racism.
I can't highly enough recommend Clay and the stories he so unselfishly shares with those who decide to dig a little deeper into what exactly Birmigham was, and about the faces which initiated a new age of desegregation and reform in the City. Thanks for a great trip Clay!