Civil Rights in Alabama

By Mark A. Newman

During the 1950s and 60s, civil rights activists fought for racial justice across the South. Today, many of those battlegrounds have evolved into state-of-the-art museums that explain the stories within the movement.

Midway along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail on U.S. Highway 80 in Hayneville lies the $10 million Lowndes County Interpretive Center. The National Park Service facility commemorates the location where marchers camped after being forced from their homes for attempting to register to vote.

The Civil Rights Memorial Center in downtown Montgomery contains exhibits depicting momentous events that occurred in the city and explains how 40 activists died in the South between 1955 and 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. A Wall of Tolerance allows visitors to sign a pledge to promote racial justice.

The Rosa Parks Museum, the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where King preached, and the Dexter Parsonage Museum are within a few blocks of the visitors center.

In Selma, you can walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where marchers were attacked in 1965, then step inside the National Voting Rights Museum to learn about the movement's "foot soldiers."

Birmingham's Civil Rights District includes Kelly Ingram Park, where marches were formed, and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were killed by a racist's bomb. Across the street is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, the nation's finest civil rights museum. It has 58,000 square feet of archives, galleries, community meeting rooms and exhibit spaces.

Other important sites include the Tuskegee Human & Civil Rights Multicultural Center and the airfield where the Tuskegee Airmen trained during World War II.

For Additional Information:
Alabama Bureau of Tourism & Travel: 1-800-ALABAMA or www.alabama.travel
The Civil Rights Memorial Center: 334-956-8200 or www.splcenter.org
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: 866-328-9696 or www.bcri.org
Birmingham Convention and Visitors Bureau: 800-458-8085 or www.sweetbirmingham.com
Montgomery Convention and Visitors Bureau: 800-240-9452 or www.visitingmontgomery.com
National Voting Rights Museum & Institute: 334-418-0800 or www.selmavotingrightsmuseum.org
Rosa Parks Library and Museum: 334-241-8661 or montgomery.troy.edu/rosaparks/museum
Selma-Dallas County Chamber of Commerce: 334-875-7241 or www.selmaalabama.com
Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center: 334-724-0800 or 334-724-0801

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Featured event

Bridge Crossing Jubilee
[Selma] [Mar 3-7, 2011]
Mar 3-7, Selma Bridge Crossing Jubilee 334 418-0800. www.selmajubilee.com. National Voting Rights Museum & Edmund Pettus Bridge--Held the first full weekend of March, the weekend is a commemoration of the anniversary of "Bloody Sunday" and the Selma to Montgomery march. This year's theme is: “Celebrating and Renewing the Spirit of SNCC through Our Youth.” Activities include a pageant, a dance, women and youth conferences, a parade, the Festival, interfaith service and National Voting Rights Hall of Fame induction.
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