Retrace Significant Southern Civil Rights History
By Tom Downs
Posted Feb. 7, 2008, at 1 p.m.
The South is beautiful, but not simply so. One cannot appreciate the region without complex emotions, for an important chapter in U.S. history unfolded here. The heroic Civil Rights Movement is a not-so-distant memory, and visiting key sites in Montgomery, Birmingham and Memphis is guaranteed to raise the hair on your back.
Civil Rights Memorial.
© Oliver Strewe. Lonely Planet Images.
Montgomery, Ala.
If any city can claim to have been ground zero of the Civil Rights Movement, it's Montgomery, home base of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. History is palpable in a number of landmarks around town. Dr. King served as pastor at the elegant Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church from 1954 to 1960. From the church's pulpit, King articulated his compelling message of nonviolent protest, and his words may well occupy your own thoughts as you pause to reflect here. The parsonage, which served as Dr. King's residence, is open to the public.
The Rosa Parks Museum honors the African American woman who quietly undermined Jim Crow segregation by taking a seat in the front of a local city bus in 1955. The museum's main draw is its special effects "time machine" bus that transits passengers through the entire history of the black experience in America.
The Civil Rights Memorial Center celebrates the achievements and sacrifices of the movement with inspiring exhibits and the beautifully designed "Civil Rights Monument" by sculptor Maya Lin. Lin is best known for her "Vietnam Veterans Memorial" in Washington, D.C., and her Civil Rights piece is equally understated and powerful. It's a simple circle of black granite with the names of those killed during the movement chiseled onto its glassy surface, but it succeeds in stirring unexpected feelings. Most visitors involuntarily run their fingers over the names, as though communing with the past.
While in Montgomery, walk up the steps of the State Capitol, which paradoxically claims to have been the birthplace of the Confederacy (Jefferson Davis was inaugurated here) and the site of rousing MLK speeches.
Visitors to Montgomery may want to approach via Highway 80 from Selma. The Selma-to-Montgomery marches followed the shoulder of this route in 1965. The National Parks Service (NPS) has designated this stretch of highway a National Historic Trail. The NPS operates The Lowndes County Interpretive Center about midway between Selma and Montgomery.
State Capitol Building.
© Richard Cummins. Lonely Planet Images.
Birmingham, Ala.
The locus of so many pivotal and violent events in the early 1960s, Birmingham's downtown Civil Rights District includes several remarkable sites. Of highest magnitude is the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, an unassuming house of worship that was bombed by Ku Klux Klan members in 1963. The bombers attacked during Sunday School classes, needlessly killing four young girls. The repaired church looks supremely peaceful today, much as it must have just moments before the explosion. Nearby, Kelly Ingram Park evokes similarly disturbing contrasts: It's a calm-inducing public park that, in 1963, was the setting for a peaceful protest which was brutally squashed by police dogs and firehoses. These disquieting events, and the ensuing national furor, are often cited for having galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. All of this history is artfully told at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
Old cars outside National Civil Rights Museum at Lorraine Motel..
© Ray Laskowitz. Lonely Planet Images.
Memphis, Tenn.
For anyone versed in Civil Rights history, Memphis conjures up the sadness and anger of one of America's darkest hours. From the street, the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in 1968, appears eerily frozen in time. Two 1960s Cadillacs are parked in front, and the building itself still projects a utilitarian, 1960s smartness. Dr. King spent his last night in room 6, which has been carefully preserved in the following morning's state of disarray — unwashed coffee cups, rumpled sheets and all. Attached to the hotel, the expansive Civil Rights Museum chronicles the period with documentary photos. Historic artifacts include the actual Montgomery city bus boarded by Rosa Parks. Recorded speeches and scenes of civil strife bring back the passions of so many decades ago.
While in Memphis, take a stroll down Beale Street, the historic black commercial district that continues to hum with nightlife, albeit in a more touristy way than it did back in the day. BB King's Blues Club anchors the strip and presents blues bands every night. For the best of Memphis' renowned barbecue, head out to the Cozy Corner (901-527-9158), an unadorned mom-and-pop operation that smokes up mouth-watering ribs and pulled-pork sandwiches. It's just five minutes by car from Beale Street.
Bio: Tom Downs is the author of Lonely Planet's "New Orleans 4," which won the Society of American Travel Writers Lowell Thomas Gold Medal for Guidebooks in 2007.
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