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Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Follow the Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Alabama Civil Rights Trail

4 Nights From €1099 (Per Person)

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Alabama|| Georgia

Photograph of Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Follow the Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Birmingham (Alabama) - Selma (Alabama)- Montgomery (Alabama) - Tuskegee(Alabama)  

The Alabama Civil Rights Trail has become a major international destination. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has selected Alabama churches as future World Heritage Sites. Two Baptist churches in Birmingham and Dr. Martin Luther King’s church in Montgomery will be the first World Heritage Sites in America linked to the struggle for civil rights.

In Alabama, museums, bridges, churches and other sites chronicle key episodes of America’s civil rights movement. Walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma during the annual Bridge Crossing, commemorating the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. Tour the National Voting Rights Museum and visit Brown Chapel, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Voting Rights Movement. Then follow the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail to Lowndes County, where antebellum history and sweeping plantation homes are juxtaposed against the backdrop of the civil rights struggle.

In Montgomery, visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center. Learn the stories of 40 activists who died during the movement between 1955 and 1968; then run your hands through the cool waters of the memorial behind it. Tour the State Capitol building, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, Alabama State University and the Rosa Parks Museum, where the quiet courage of a seamstress is retold in dramatic style.

In Tuskegee, at the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, see videos and exhibits on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and learn about a pioneering civil rights lawyer named Fred Gray, who represented participants of the infamous study, as well as Dr. King, Rosa Parks and others. Stand in the midst of black aviation history at Moton Field, and follow the road to excellence at historic Tuskegee University.

At the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, touch the bars behind which King penned his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” sit in the tranquility of Kelly Ingram Park, and visit the church across the street where four little girls were killed by a racist’s bomb. – Marilyn Jones Stamps

Map of Alabama

Alabama Civil Rights Trail

Itinerary

Day 1: Arrive Birmingham

You can fly into Birmingham’s airport to begin this exciting tour.

Start your tour at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, an interpretive museum that depicts the struggles of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. You will be enchanted by old and new exhibits that tell the story of a people and a movement. Across the street, visit the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, bombed by Klansmen in 1963, killing four little girls. Stroll through Kelly Ingram Park where sculptures depict the reality of the police dogs and fire hoses that were turned on demonstrators who gathered here to protest segregation laws.

Highlights include:

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Across the street, historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a famous civil rights landmark that was bombed by Klansmen in 1963, killing four little girls.

Across the street from the church, Kelly Ingram Park features sculptures depicting the reality of the police dogs and fire hoses that were turned on demonstrators who gathered at the park in the 1960s.

Tour historic 4th Avenue North, location of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Day 2: Selma

Travel to Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where the civil rights march began in 1965 and where law enforcement personnel confronted voting rights marchers on Bloody Sunday. The marches and other protests around the state eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Visit the Brown Chapel AME Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the voting rights march. Tour the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute, which houses memorabilia honoring the attainment of the right to vote. Also downtown, see the Old Depot Museum with artifacts from Native American days up through the voting rights era. In the afternoon, visit antebellum mansion Sturdivant Hall, designed by a cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. See the Old Live Oak Cemetery, where Alabama and America’s first black congressman, Benjamin Sterling Turner, is buried.

Day 3: Montgomery

Depart for Montgomery and follow the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail. Be sure to stop at the Viola Liuzzo historic marker, between Lowndesboro and Montgomery near mile marker 111. It is placed near the spot where Mrs. Liuzzo was shot and killed by four Klansmen while she was giving black marchers a ride back to Selma following the Selma-to-Montgomery march. Also visit the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail Interpretative Center at White Hall to learn more about the marchers and the trials they encountered. In Montgomery, visit the Rosa Parks Museum and feel what it was like to be arrested for not moving to the back of the bus. Stop for lunch in downtown Montgomery. Stand in the pulpit at Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached. Visit the Alabama State Capitol, the birthplace of the Confederacy and the final stop along the Selma-to-Montgomery march. Nearby, see the Civil Rights Memorial. Travel only a few blocks and visit the Dexter Parsonage Museum to tour the residence once occupied by Dr. King and his family.

Highlights include:

Follow the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where law enforcement personnel confronted voting rights marchers.

Selma-to-Montgomery Trail Interpretive Center - the National Park Service museum is at the midpoint of the Selma-to-Montgomery March and offers photos and memorabilia.

Rosa Parks Museum - Feel what it was like to be arrested for not moving to the back of the bus.

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church – See where Dr. King started his ministry.

Dexter Parsonage Museum - Tour the residence in Montgomery formerly occupied by Dr. King and his family. See actual furnishings from the time when Dr. King’s family lived in the home.

Alabama State Capitol – See the birthplace of the Confederacy and the final stop along the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

Civil Rights Memorial – The memorial designed by national artist Maya Lin is one block south of the church where Dr. King was pastor.

 

Day 4: Tuskegee

Travel to Tuskegee and Moton Field, home of the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site. Tuskegee Airmen were among the best fighter pilots of World War II. Also visit the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site, which includes The Oaks, home of Booker T. Washington; the George Washington Carver Museum; and the historic Tuskegee University campus. Later, see the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center with its photography and videos about the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study as well as a timeline through Alabama history. Overnight in the area.

Highlights include:

Moton Field and Tuskegee Army Air Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen, famed black aviators, learned to fly.

The Oaks, home of Booker T. Washington.

George Washington Carver Museum, dedicated to the work of the famed scientist on the historic Tuskegee University campus.

Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. See photos and videos on the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Day 5: Depart for Home

 

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