Begin this tour in Mobile and take a driving tour of Africatown, still home to a community of descendants of Clotilde, the last slave ship to arrive in America. After emancipation, the former slaves returned from various plantations, bought land and formed Africatown, ruling it according to customary African laws and speaking their own regional language. Tour the Museum of Mobile, a National Historic landmark built in 1857, which contains the rich history of Native American, Colonial, African-American and Antebellum influences on the 300 year old city. Also visit the National African-American Archives Museum which houses many artifacts and special collections that reflect the Black history of Alabama’s oldest city.

Highlights include:

• A driving tour includes several churches of historic interest and Africatown, so named because it was the settlement of the Africans brought to Mobile on the “Clotilde”-America’s last slave ship that came in 1859.

• Museum of Mobile, a National Historic landmark built in 1857, contains the rich history of Native American, Colonial, African-American and Antebellum influences on this 300 year old city.

• National African-American Archives Museum houses many artifacts and special collections that reflect the Black history of Alabama’a oldest city.

Attractions

• Museum of Mobile, The (Phone 251-208-7569)
  Innovative exhibits come alive in this National Historic Landmark. Explore Mobile as the first Americans saw it. Relive the journey of African-Americans. Sense the revelry of Mardi Gras. Get your hands on history.

Accommodations

Depart hotel and travel to historic Selma, home to Brown Chapel AME Church, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. launched the Voting Rights March. Tour the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute which houses memorabilia honoring the attainment of the right to vote. Also downtown see the Old Depot Museum with artifacts from Native American days up through the Voting Rights era. In the afternoon, visit antebellum Sturdivant Hall, a Greek Revival mansion designed by a cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. See the historic Old Live Oak Cemetery, where Alabama and America’s first black congressman, is buried.

Highlights include:

• Brown Chapel AME Church, where Martin Luther King, Jr. launched the Voting Rights March.

• National Voting Rights Museum & Institute which houses memorabilia honoring the attainment of the right to vote.

• Old Depot Museum with artifacts from Native American days up through the Voting Rights era.

• Antebellum Sturdivant Hall, a Greek Revival mansion designed by a cousin of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

• Old Live Oak Cemetery, where Alabama and America’s first black congressman, is buried.

Depart hotel for Montgomery traveling over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where law enforcement personnel confronted voting rights marchers. The demonstration and the subsequent struggle known as Bloody Sunday eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Follow the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail. Be sure to stop at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center, the National Parks Museum at the mid-point of the Selma-to-Montgomery March.. In Montgomery visit the Rosa Parks Museum and feel what it was like to be arrested for not moving to the back of the bus. Lunch in downtown Montgomery. Later, visit the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. King started his ministry. Visit the Alabama State Capitol, the birthplace of the Confederacy and the final stop along the Selma-to-Montgomery March. Nearby see the Civil Rights Memorial Center. Travel only a few blocks and visit the Dexter Avenue Parsonage Museum and tour the residence in Montgomery formerly occupied by Dr. King and his family.

Highlights include:

• Follow the Selma-to-Montgomery Trail over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where law enforcement personnel confronted voting rights marchers.

• Lowndes County Interpretive Center, the National Parks Museum at the mid-point of the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

• Rosa Parks Museum. Feel what it was like to be arrested for not moving to the back of the bus.

• Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Dr. King started his ministry.

• Dexter Avenue Parsonage Museum. Tour the residence in Montgomery formerly occupied by Dr. King and his family.

• Alabama State Capitol, the birthplace of the Confederacy and the final stop along the Selma-to-Montgomery March.

• Civil Rights Memorial

Attractions

• Civil Rights Memorial (Phone 334-956-8200)
  Water flows over table inscribed with names of those who died during the modern Civil Rights Movement. Wall inscribed with excerpt from Book of Amos quoted in historic speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.
• Rosa Parks Museum and Children's Wing (Phone 334-241-8615)
  

  State-of-the-art museum depicting events that started the bus boycott and early Civil Rights movement. Interactive, multi-media presentation. Affiliate of Troy State University.

• Rosa Parks Museum and Children's Wing (Phone 334-241-8661)
  

  State-of-the-art museum depicting events that started the bus boycott and early Civil Rights movement. Interactive, multi-media presentation. Affiliate of Troy State University.

Accommodations

Travel to Tuskegee to Moton Field and Tuskegee Army Air Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen, famed black aviators, learned to fly. They were among the best fighter pilots of World War II. Also visit the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site which includes The Oaks, home of Booker T. Washington; the George Washington Carver Museum, dedicated to the work of the famed scientist; and the historic Tuskegee University campus. Later, see the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center with its photography and videos on the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Highlights include:

• Moton Field and Tuskegee Army Air Field, where the Tuskegee Airmen, famed black aviators, learned to fly.

• The Oaks, home of Booker T. Washington

• George Washington Carver Museum, dedicated to the work of the famed scientist on the historic Tuskegee University campus.

• Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. Photography and videos on the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

Travel to Birmingham to tour The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. The Civil Rights Institute is both an embrace and a release. The Institute’s 12 galleries tell the heroic story of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s of how ordinary people overcame centuries old bigotry and racism. A self-directed journey through award-winning multimedia exhibits gives an account in graphic detail of the civil rights struggle utilizing archival material, audio-visual aids and artifacts of the period. Across the avenue from the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute stands the city’s most famous Civil Rights Landmark, Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. On Sunday morning September 15, 1963, Ku Klux Klansmen bombed the church, killing four little girls preparing for morning worship. Walk across the street to Kelly Ingram Park designed as “A Place of Revolution and Reconciliation.” Sculptures in the park recollect attacks on demonstrators, including ones in which police dogs and fire hoses were turned on the marchers, children jailed for their involvement in the protests, and the clergy’s important role in the Movement. Kelly Ingram Park serves at the gateway to the Birmingham Civil Rights District which includes the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Highlights include:

• The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

• Across the street, historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a famous civil rights landmark that was bombed by Klansmen in 1963, killing four little girls.

• Also across the street, Kelly Ingram Park with sculptures depicting the reality of the police dogs and fire hoses that were turned on demonstrators who gathered at the park in the 1960s.

• Tour historic 4th Avenue North, location of the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

Travel to Huntsville to tour the State Black Archives Research Center and Museum at the historic campus of Alabama A&M University; the one place in the state where Black History is brought together, sorted, catalogued and preserved. Hear about the Buffalo Soldiers and how Huntsville was the first city to officially end the state’s policy of “separate but equal” school systems for blacks and whites. Also, visit the 1819 Weeden House Museum where artist and poet Maria Howard Weeden brought to life the faces and voices of the slaves from the 19th century.

Highlights include:

• Tour the State Black Archives Research Center and Museum located on the historic campus of Alabama A&M University.

• Tour the Dred Scott Home Site at Oakwood College, one of the most prestigious black colleges in the United States.

• Tour the Weeden House Museum

Attractions

• Dred Scott Home Site (Phone 256-726-7000)
  Dred Scott, the plaintiff in the famous Scott v. Sanford case, was brought to Huntsville as a slave in 1818 and lived in Alabama for 12 years. In its now infamous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against Scott 7-2 in 1857, saying that no blacks, free or slave, could be citizens of the United States.
• Weeden House Museum (Phone 256-536-7718)
  

  Birthplace of Maria Howard Weeden (1846–1905), noted artist and poet. Federal period domestic architecture with curved stairway and central hall. Period furniture featured. Weeden portraits on display. Oldest house in Alabama open as museum.

Accommodations