Things to Do
Civil Rights Inspiration
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everal Alabama cities are home to some of the most important Civil Rights monuments, museums, and historic sites. This includes the Civil Rights Institute and Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Montgomery’s Civil Rights Monument and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and Selma’s Voting Rights Museum. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute sits at the corner of Sixteenth Street and Sixth Avenue North, forming the cornerstone of Birmingham’s Civil Rights District, which covers a six-block area. Additional landmarks include Kelly Ingram Park, the Fourth Avenue Business District, and Carver Theater. The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute provides an in-depth look at the events of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s in both Birmingham and the United States, as well as continuing issues that African Americans have faced since. The galleries feature permanent and temporary exhibits on a variety of topics from violent conflict to segregation.
Ninety miles (about an hour and one-half) further south is the city of Montgomer where the civil Rights Memorial stands. It features an an exquisite black granite sculpture commemorating those killed during the struggles of the Civil Rights Movement. The memorial stands in a square next to the Civil Rights Memorial Center, where tourists will find educational displays and exhib-
its, including the Wall of Tolerance. Another Montgomery landmark is the newly opened National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a six-acre space dedicated to those African Americans who were victims of lynching and other forms of racial injustice. The memorial includes artwork, sculptures, and monuments, which honor various figures in the Civil Rights movement, as well as a field of 800 monuments each representing a county where lynchings took place. Go on an adventure hunt to find several important Civil Rights landmarks. The most famous being the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and museum, which was the meeting place of early Civil Rights activits and once the parish of Martin Luther King Jr.
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