For Martin Luther King Day, explore civil rights and African American history sites

  The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail.

 

There are multiple important sites located within walking distance of each other in the Sweet  Auburn district of Atlanta where King was born and raised. The King Center has an exhibition hall with mementos from Dr. King’s life, as well as videos of his speeches and sermons. It is next to the Freedom Plaza where King’s tomb is situated amidst a reflecting pool. Also within the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site are King’s birth home and the Ebeneezer Baptist Church, where King and his father were pastors.

 

 

Alabama was the epicenter of numerous civil rights battles of the 1950s and these historic events are memorialized in the state today. In Montgomery, you can tour the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where King was a preacher; the Dexter Parsonage Museum, where King and his family lived; the Rosa Parks Library and Museum, which pays tribute to the woman who sparked a year-long city bus boycott; and the Civil Rights Memorial, designed by the architect Maya Lin, that honors those who gave their life to the civil rights struggle.

 

Just west of Montgomery is Selma. Between the two cities, you can follow the Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail, which commemorates the 1965 Voting Rights March, and stop at the Edmund Pettis Bridge, where 500 marchers were attacked by state police.

 

Birmingham, meanwhile, is home to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, a museum that re-creates the world of racial segregation and the civil rights clashes. It is across the street from the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, where four young girls were killed during a 1963 bombing by the Ku Klux Klan.

 

 

The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is where King was assassinated while standing on a balcony outside his room. The motel is now a part of the National Civil Rights Museum, which traces the history of racial segregation in the country from the Civil War through the struggles of the 1950s and 1960s. It includes life-sized exhibits and video footage of seminal events, as well as the motel room and balcony where King died.

 

 

The Underground Railroad was a 19^th century network of private homes and churches where fleeing slaves were hidden as they tried to make their way north to a free state. The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center uses exhibits and interactive endeavors to detail the history of slavery and tell the story of the Underground Railroad and of the individuals who worked to overturn slave laws.

 

 

The Beacon Hill neighborhood of Boston was once a center of black life in the city. Today,

15 historic buildings within the African American National Historic Site are connected by a 1.6-mile Black Heritage Trail that tells the story of African American life in Boston prior to the Civil War. Among other things, you’ll see the African Meeting House, which is the oldest black church in the country and the former home of the New England Anti-Slavery Society; the Robert Gould Shaw Memorial, and the homes of several prominent African Americans of the era.

 

 

From 1926 to 1954, the Monroe School of Topeka was attended solely by African American children. Then 13 Topeka parents sued for the right of their children to attend white schools that were closer to their homes and they won a Supreme Court decision that sparked the desegregation of American education. Today, the school is a museum and is part of the Brown vs. Board of Education National Historic Site. It has exhibits about the history of school segregation and the landmark legal case.

 

 

The school desegregation issue continued to challenge communities even after the Brown decision. In 1957, irate citizens tried to stop nine African-American students from enrolling at the whites-only Little Rock Central High School. President Dwight Eisenhower called in troops from the 101^st Airborne division to escort the students to classes. Although Central High is still a working school, it is now part of the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Guided tours are available at special times, or you can visit the Central High Museum and Visitor Center across the street.