Stops to Make Along the Civil Rights Trail

See where Rosa Parks started a movement and where MLK was born.

The pandemic saw a major switch in the elbow room many Americans look at Black story . The protests of 2020 bring to the forefront the noesis that the combat for equality , civil right , and social jurist is still an ongoing struggle . Today , as we stay to wrestle with this noesis and the questions of how to make positive changes , it is only in see the past tense that we can truly comprehend how we get to this degree — and how to move forward in a direction that ’s just for all .

blackened chronicle is American history , and no part of our corporate past is more important to the fight for freedom and equality than the era that ’s known as the Civil Rights apparent movement ; from 1954 to 1965 , African Americans fight back and sometimes expire to secure their rightfulness to to vote and to receive adequate education and treatment under the law and in public spaces . Far from just an American movement , this fighting for equality influenced exchangeable battle around the earth .

In 2018 , the National Park System honored this fight by creating the Civil Rights Trail , bringing together a collection of over 120 site across the US , where visitant can respect and considerably understand these important moments in American account . Here are some of the most iconic sites on the list to plan a trip for yourself .

Edmund Pettus Bridge

Walk over the Edmund Pettus Bridge.|PhotoAlto/Jerome Gorin/PhotoAlto Agency RF Collections/Getty Images

Rosa Parks Museum,Freedom Rides Museum, andEdmund Pettus Bridge

Montgomery , AlabamaIf you’re able to only visit one place list on the Civil Rights Trail , Montgomery , Alabama might be the practiced choice . Montgomery was one of the focal point of conflict during the Civil Rights movement , so you could drop several mean solar day here explore the footsteps of Rosa Parks , Martin Luther King Jr. , and the Freedom Riders . Here , Parks kicked off the Montgomery passenger vehicle boycott when she famously refuse to give up her seat on a segregated passenger vehicle .

TheRosa Parks Museumtalks about the larger context of this of import dissent , while honour her memory . Just down the route , theFreedom Rides Museumis put up in the former double-decker station where a mob attacked a biracial group of young people who had ridden the motorbus into the city to protest separatism laws . TheDexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Churchwhere Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor educates visitant on some of the first actions of this legendary leader . verify to also stop over at theLegacy Museum , which helps link up the shabbiness of slaveholding and Jim Crow to the continue fighting for societal justice . Montgomery is also an excellent launch pad to visit nearby Selma , where you may gossip theEdmund Pettus Bridge , the website of a vehement clangour between peaceful protesters and police that come to be known as “ Bloody Sunday . ” The bridge is frequently visited by important figures past and present , including the late John Lewis and President Barack Obama .

Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site

Little Rock , ArkansasThe “ Little Rock Nine ” was the name given to nine African American high school pupil who were the first to integrate Central High School in 1957 . Though they had to be escort by the National guard and often faced violent oppositeness , these brave scholar uphold to attend and finally graduated from the shoal . Today visitant can participate in guided tours of the site and a film about its chronicle .

National Civil Rights Museum

Memphis , TennesseeDr . Martin Luther King Jr. died at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis , Tennessee in 1968 , after being charge on the balcony . The former hotel has now been turn into a museum that detail both the history of the Civil Rights Movement and the lifetime and contributions of MLK . It was enlarge to admit more information about the ongoing struggles for civil right around the world and the gaining control , prosecution , and continued controversy around James Earl Ray , who was arrested for King ’s murder .

Penn Center

Saint Helena Island , South CarolinaThePenn Centeris the internet site of the former Penn School , the first school for African Americans in the South . Founded in 1862 , the school was only subject to freed slaves , though three years later — after emancipation — that became all African Americans . The site go along to be a billet of opposition well into the modern earned run average , at one breaker point play legion to MLK and serving as an educational site during the Civil Rights move . Today there are more than 50 historical buildings to explore on the attribute , including a Christian church , the original school , and a museum that separate the story of the Penn School , as well as that of the surrounding Gullah community — a distinct African American ethnic chemical group in this area . The Center stay attached to the effort of education and community exploitation in the Sea Islands where it ’s located .

Medgar Evers Museum

Jackson , MississippiMedgar Evers was the first field repository of the NAACP in the Department of State of Mississippi , the high local leadership position in the organization . Known for his staunch notion in integration and adequate access to education , Evers was killed in 1963 by a KKK member outside of his home . Today his theatre is a museum dedicated to Evers ’ life and the on-going struggle forcivil rights .

National Museum of African American History and Culture

Washington , DCOpened to much fanfare in 2016 , this museum is part of the Smithsonian Institution and showcases the history , polish , and achievements of African Americans in the US to particular date . The exhibitions here attempt to cover the largeness of African American history and culture .

The experience starts in the basement , with artifacts chronicling the horror of slavery , such as tike - sized manacles and letters search for loved unity who had been sold out . You then move slow upward to cover moments of resistance , like the Civil Rights campaign , and moments of find , like a assembling include Louis Armstrong ’s trumpet and Whitney Houston ’s clothes , to spotlight the world renowned sounds of African American musician .

King Center and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park

Atlanta , GeorgiaMLK ’s final resting place is at the King Center in the urban center of Atlanta , where he was bear . This centre is part of the larger Martin Luther King , Jr. National Historical Park , which includes his place of origin , the Ebenezer Baptist Church where he was ordained , and four other sites of historical significance . The King Center itself , also called Center for Nonviolent Social Change , hosts special events and educational exhibitions about nonviolence and civil rights around the existence .

Freedom Rides Museum