As we observe the birthday of one of many nice Civil Rights leaders within the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I wished to share among the Civil Rights websites that you need to go to together with your children if you wish to increase them to be anti-racist. N
ot everybody can do a full on Civil Rights street journey alongside the Civil Rights Trail, like we did one summer season. And, whereas the repetition actually drives the message dwelling, you additionally don’t want to go to each sight to show the lesson that must be discovered.
So I assumed it could be useful to summarize among the notable civil rights sights across the nation — maybe not too removed from dwelling. With at present’s political local weather, I really feel like it’s as necessary as ever to go to these points of interest and achieve a real appreciation for the violence and hatred the courageous contributors of the motion confronted and why the wrestle nonetheless persists at present.
We all have one thing to realize by trying again, evaluating to the current, and being activated to battle for a greater world sooner or later.
Visiting these websites is made simpler with the newly launched US Civil Rights Trail. This path covers greater than 100 areas throughout 14 states. I’ve lined just a few of those under, in addition to some extra websites to contemplate.
Before you go to, I might additionally extremely advocate investing in a replica of U.S. Civil Rights Trail: A Traveler’s Guide to the People, Places, and Events that Made the Movement, revealed in 2021 from Moon Travel Guides. This publish was written in partnership with Moon Travel Guides, all opinions are my very own.
Civil Rights Sites within the United States
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Washington DC
This is the primary memorial on the National Mall to honor an African-American. The design of MLK’s picture rising from a mountain got here from a hyperlink in his well-known “I Have a Dream” speech, the place he states, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of a mountain of despair a stone of hope.” The carved mountain has a slice pulled out, symbolizing the “stone of hope.”
The memorial additionally connects a line between the Lincoln Memorial, the place Luther made his well-known speech, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, one authors of the Declaration of Independence which was referenced in that speech. While you’re there you too can go to the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
See my 3-day Washington D.C. itinerary.
John Brown’s Fort, Harper’s Ferry, WV
If you comply with the trail to the civil rights motion all the way in which again to the pre-Civil War days of the abolitionist motion it is going to lead you to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. Hannah and I finished right here on the way in which again from our two-week street journey by means of Virginia.
We fell in love with this stunning city, and its fascinating historical past. Read extra about our go to to Harpers Ferry.
International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Greensboro, NC
I first discovered about this museum this summer season after I met with the PR workforce for Visit Greensboro. There have been loads of cool issues about this city however what shocked me was a civil rights museum I had by no means heard of.
They have taken the unique Woolworth’s constructing and turned it into the International Civil Rights Center & Museum to commemorate the A&T Four and their function in launching the sit-in motion, retaining the unique footprint of the seats and lunch counter.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Park, Indianapolis, IN
There’s a park simply north of downtown Indianapolis with an unimaginable sculpture devoted to each Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the way their tragic historical past was so intertwined. On the night time of King’s assassination, RFK was because of ship a marketing campaign speech to an viewers in an Indianapolis park that was largely folks of coloration.
His phrases inspired the group to proceed the legacy of Dr. King and is credited with retaining Indianapolis peaceable that night time, when so many different cities erupted in riots. The speech is highly effective, and I like that the sculpture itself continues their legacy as peacemakers, and the way we are able to work collectively towards that imaginative and prescient.
Submitted by Nicole Wiltrout, Arrows Sent Forth
Old Courthouse, St. Louis, MO
While St. Louis could also be finest identified for its skyline-defining Arch, it additionally has a wealthy historical past of civil rights struggles together with the landmark Dred Scott trials. In 1847, Mr. Scott filed go well with towards his homeowners for his freedom. He misplaced his first case which was tried within the Old Courthouse, however he was granted permission for a re-trial by the Missouri Supreme Court. His case finally went to the U.S. Supreme Court the place he finally gained his freedom in 1857. The determination was a significant turning level in American historical past as tensions between the North and South grew. Civil struggle broke out shortly thereafter on April 12, 1861.
If you’re visiting the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, make sure you take a while to stroll by means of the Old Courthouse additionally. It’s solely a brief stroll away and it’s an enchanting look again on the historical past of race and justice in America. Even if historical past isn’t your factor, the structure is unbelievable. Consider visiting between Flag Day and Independence Day the place the courthouse is adorned prime to backside with American flags.
See different issues to do in St. Louis.
Submitted by: Carrick Buss, Along for the Trip
National Civil Rights Museum on the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, TN
While many civil rights employees and lunch counter protesters have been educated in Nashville, the higher website to go to is in Memphis. The National Civil Rights Museum on the Lorraine Motel, the place the place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, must be in your prime two Civil Rights websites to go to.
It follows the timeline from the start of the slave commerce by means of the purpose of MLK Jr.’s assassination overlooking the rooms he occupied within the Lorraine Motel and the balcony the place he was shot. It touches on all the main moments of the motion, from the Bus Boycott to the Freedom Rides, the Selma March, the bombings in Birmingham and the lynchings and killings alongside the way in which. It is a robust expertise and by the point you look into the place Dr. King spent his final moments, it’s exhausting to carry again tears.
See my 3-days in Memphis itinerary.
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, Topeka, KS
The Monroe Elementary School was one in all 4 segregated elementary colleges for black kids in Topeka. To memorialize the landmark Supreme Court Case of Brown v. Board of Education, which ended authorized segregation of faculties, this faculty was reopened in 2004 as a National Historic Site and civil rights interpretive heart.
Your go to begins with a 30-minute movie Race and the American Creed, which traces the historical past of racism and segregation. Other reveals study the challenges African Americans confronted whereas making an attempt to obtain a proper training earlier than the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court determination, the legacy of Brown v Board of Education, and an instance kindergarten classroom.
Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site, Little Rock, AR
Arkansas has its personal Civil Rights Heritage Trail, with fairly just a few websites in Little Rock, together with the Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock Nine Memorial on the State Capitol, and the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site.
This is the place the “Little Rock Nine”, the 9 African-American college students to first be built-in into this all-white highschool, confronted down the state National Guard and offended protesters who tried to dam their method. Today, this still-functioning faculty is a National Historic Site and civil rights museum with ranger-led excursions.
Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, Jackson, MS
You can hint Mississippi’s civil rights journey on the Mississippi Freedom Trail. In Jackson, you’ll be able to go to the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. While the museum covers the whole Civil Rights Movement, particular consideration is given to the murders of Medgar Evers and Emmett Till.
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, Birmingham, AL
The Birmingham Civil Right Institute additionally traces the trail of the Civil Right Movement, however this time with particular consideration paid to the historical past in Alabama. It covers Birmingham’s very segregated historical past and as soon as once more walks by means of the main moments of the motion.
While pretty easy, this museum was Hannah’s favourite on our civil rights street journey. After a go to, make sure you take a stroll by means of the Kelly Ingram Park throughout the road and soak up its highly effective monuments and memorials. You may go to the sixteenth Street Baptist Church, the place 4 younger women have been murdered in a bombing.
Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, AL
I might advocate watching the film Selma earlier than strolling throughout Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. There isn’t a lot else to see, besides a small interpretive heart on the foot of the bridge, however seeing the bridge in particular person after studying about its historical past is an emotional second.
Rosa Parks Museum, Montgomery, AL
In the state capital of Montgomery, you’ll be able to go to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s church, the positioning of Rosa Parks’ arrest and the courthouse of Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. For museums, one of the best is the Rosa Parks Museum, which does a superb job of utilizing video to inform the story of Rosa Parks and the start of the Montgomery bus boycott.
I assumed I knew the story of Rosa Parks however I used to be mistaken. There have been so many info that I discovered that gave much more which means to the actions of this brave girl. After the Rosa Parks Museum, you’ll be able to go to the small Freedom Rides Museum to get the total story of the Freedom Riders and their bravery.
Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, Tuskegee, AL
If you have got children which are into aviation, that is the proper combo of aviation and historical past. Moton Field in Tuskegee was dwelling to an “experiment” to search out out if African-Americans could possibly be educated to be fight pilots. The Tuskegee Airmen fought in World War II as the primary African-American army aviators within the nation’s historical past.
Today, the hangars at Moton Field home artifacts associated to the Tuskegee Airmen and you’ll even see a aircraft they flew. A buddy of mine visited this previous summer season and her children actually loved this website.
National Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, GA
Of all of the museums and websites that I’ve visited, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights is definitely one in all my favorites. Because it’s comparatively new, the reveals are very fashionable and interactive. The strongest of all is the lunch counter exhibit. Visitors must be 13 to take part, as it is extremely emotional. As you sit down, you don headphones, place your palms on the lunch counter, and shut your eyes. It makes it appear as if persons are throughout you, screaming in your ears and hitting the again of your chair. It is uncooked and disturbing and places you within the footwear of a protestor the way in which nothing else can.
I additionally actually loved the Human Rights exhibit, which talked concerning the ongoing wrestle for human rights world wide, profiling each essentially the most evil violators of these rights, and the strongest advocates.
See my Atlanta with teenagers itinerary.
Women’s Rights National Historical Park, Seneca Falls, NY
I can’t discuss Civil Rights with out additionally together with girls’s rights. A few years in the past, we visited Seneca Falls, dwelling to the Women’s Rights National Historical Park and the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
Here you’ll be able to find out about girls’s wrestle for equal rights and the correct to vote. If you wish to be impressed by a bunch of highly effective, sensible, and courageous girls, undoubtedly embrace a cease on the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
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