Earlier this month, we blogged about books you can read to discover and understand the stories of Black Americans.
Today, we want to offer some suggestions for places to go in Alabama and movies to watch that will help you learn more about the experiences of Black men and women.
Birmingham’s Civil Rights Trail
Kelly Ingram Park in Birmingham is home to powerful sculptures that depict moments in the Civil Rights Movement.
Where: 5th Avenue North and 16th Street in Birmingham
Bethel Baptist Church was pastored by Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth and was the headquarters for the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights. It was bombed three times.
Where: 3233 29th Ave. N. | Birmingham, AL 35207
At the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute you can experience a segregated city in the 1950s, see a replica of the Freedom Riders bus, and the jail cell door behind which Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his famed “Letter From Birmingham Jail.”
Where: 520 16th St. N. | Birmingham, AL 35203
16th Street Baptist Church was the site of the 1963 bombing that killed four young Black girls that served as a catalyst in federal action on civil rights legislation.
Where: Corner of 16th Street and 6th Avenue North (1530 6th Ave. N. | Birmingham, AL 35203)
Selma
It was on the Edmund Pettus Bridge that civil rights marchers were beaten by law enforcement officers on March 7, 1965, the day that became known as Bloody Sunday.
Where: U.S. Highway 80 | Selma, AL 36703
Before the march on Bloody Sunday, the activists marching to Montgomery gathered at Brown Chapel AME Church to prepare for their journey. Later that day, it served as a refuge for injured marchers.
Where: 410 Martin Luther King St. | Selma, AL 36703
The National Voting Rights Museum and Institute highlights items and stories about the voting rights campaign that culminated in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s signing of the Voting Rights Act and nearly 7,000 Black men and women registering to vote in Dallas County.
Where: 6 U.S. 80 Business | Selma, AL 36701
The Selma Interpretive Center serves as a welcome center at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the beginning of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. It also contains exhibits relating to the voting rights campaign.
Where: 2 Broad St. | Selma, AL 36701
Montgomery
The Alabama State Capitol was the finish line for the third march from Selma to Montgomery for voting rights and the site of Martin Luther King’s “How Long, Not Long” speech.
Where: 600 Dexter Ave. | Montgomery, AL 36104
The Civil Rights Memorial Center features exhibits, educational activities, a theater, and is home to the Civil Rights Memorial, a tribute to those who lost their lives in the Civil Rights Movement between 1954 and 1968.
Where: 400 Washington Ave. | Montgomery, AL 36104
Martin Luther King Jr. served as pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, which hosted the mass meetings to organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Where: 454 Dexter Ave. | Montgomery, AL 36104
First Baptist Church on Ripley Street hosted meetings to organize both the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Freedom Rides and was used as a refuge to protect Freedom Riders who had been evacuated from the Greyhound Bus Station.
Where: 347 N. Ripley St. | Montgomery, AL 36104 36104
The Freedom Rides Museum sits on the site of the attack on the Freedom Riders in 1961 and has been restored to how it looked on that day.
Where: 210 S. Court St. | Montgomery, AL 36104
The Rosa Parks Museum features a restored bus and additional artifacts from Parks’ story and is located on the site where she was arrested for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger.
Where: 252 Montgomery St. | Montgomery, AL 36104
The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration features immersive exhibits and videos that explore the history of the treatment of African Americans from the time of slave auctions held near the site through Jim Crow laws and lynchings to the mass incarceration and police brutality that continues today.
Where: 115 Coosa St. | Montgomery, AL 36104
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice acknowledges the thousands of lynchings of Black men and women that occurred across the United States, many of which were previously undocumented. The memorial features 800 six-foot monuments that represent the many forms of racial terror.
Where: 417 Caroline St. | Montgomery, AL 36104
North Alabama
Huntsville’s Glenwood Cemetery is an historic African-American cemetery. It is the final resting place of veterans of American wars beginning with the Civil War as well as enslaved people, artists, clergymen, educators, entrepreneurs, politicians, and more.
Where: 709 Ward Ave. N.E. | Huntsville, AL 35801
Fifth Avenue School in Huntsville was the first integrated public school in the state of Alabama when Sonnie Hereford IV enrolled in 1963. The site is now home to Huntsville Spine and Neuro Center after the school was torn down in the early 2000s.
Where: 201 Governors Dr. S.W. | Huntsville, AL 35801
The Jesse Owens Memorial Park and Museum near Oakville honors the track and field superstar who won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. The park and museum feature a replica of Owens’ childhood home, a theater showing Return to Berlin in which Owens narrates the 1936 Olympics, uniforms, medals, shoes, and interactive kiosks.
Where: 7019 County Road 203 | Danville, AL 35619
Movies to Watch
If traveling, museums, and tours aren’t for you, we have a few movies to suggest that tell the stories of Black Americans.
Hidden Figures
42: The True Story of an American Legend
A Ballerina’s Tale
Remember the Titans
The Gabby Douglas Story
Selma
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Red Tails
Becoming (Michelle Obama)
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
13th
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