The Civil Rights Trail: Memphis, Birmingham, and Montgomery

April 10-16, 2021

The Civil Rights Movement is one of the most significant developments to shape our country’s history. Trace the historical events of the movement through three Southern cities: Memphis, Birmingham, and Montgomery. Visit churches, homes, museums, and exhibits that illuminate the Black struggle for racial, social, and economic equality. Learn about the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, the people who bravely shaped it, and those who continue to fight for justice today. Follow the route that activists marched in 1965 from Selma to the State Capitol in Montgomery, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his speech, How Long, Not Long. Explore the places and events that ignited change in American history and hear the moving stories of unforgettable tragedy and the irrepressible triumph of the human spirit.

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Memphis
Begin the Civil Rights Trail in Memphis, home to historical sites from the movement, as well as soul, blues, and rock n’ roll music and the tastiest smoky barbecue. Visit the National Civil Rights Museum at The Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King stayed numerous times and was assassinated in his prime in 1968. Visit the Legacy Building, located across from The Lorraine Motel, and the Slave Haven Underground Railroad. Partake of the local music scene with a visit to the famous Stax Museum of American Soul Music and a tour of the one-and-only Beale Street.

Birmingham
The past is on display in Birmingham and the history of the Civil Rights Movement plays a major role. Visit the 16th Street Baptist Church, the site of a church bombing in 1963 that killed four young girls preparing to sing in their choir, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, an interactive museum that tells the story of the movement. The museum features a rendition of a segregated city in the 1950s, as well as the actual door of the jail cell where Dr. King penned his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail.

Montgomery
Spend time in Alabama’s capital, where many of the Civil Rights Movement’s events occurred, laying the foundation for the 1965 marches. Visits include:

The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage Museum: The church where Dr. King preached and lived between 1954-1960
The Rosa Parks Museum: The museum honors Rosa Parks, who in 1955 refused to give up her seat to a white man on the city bus, launching a bus boycott led by Dr. King
Legacy Museum: Created by the Equal Justice Initiative, the museum looks at the history of racial injustice
National Memorial for Peace and Justice: The nation’s first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people humiliated by racial segregation and Jim Crow
The Civil Rights Memorial Center: Houses exhibits on the Civil Rights Movement martyrs and is located adjacent to the Civil Rights Memorial, a circular black granite table that records the names of the martyrs and chronicles the history of the movement
Freedom Rides Museum: A restored bus station from 1961, where the site of an attack occurred on the Freedom Riders when they arrived at the station

Selma
Take a daytrip to Selma, driving along the Montgomery National Historic Trail. Visit the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of Malcolm X’s address in support of voting rights, and the Selma Interpretive Center, where armed forces attacked the first wave of unarmed marchers during Bloody Sunday. Cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where voting rights activists, including then 25-year-old John Lewis, marched in 1965 for five days from Selma to the State Capitol in Montgomery.