A road trip through sites that were seminal to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950-60s, and an acknowledgement that the work of that struggle is far from complete. Original story at Lonely Planet.
No movement has challenged the United States to live up to its highest ideals, while tempting its worst demons, like the battle for civil rights. The fight is not one contained narrative, but a series of episodes, the latest of which is unfolding today. From the beautiful (marchers hand in hand in Selma, Alabama) to the nightmarish (those same marchers set on by police dogs), many of the events and images from this struggle are writ into Southern soil and soul.
As the country begins to confront its racial history, present and future yet again, it is more important than ever to remember the sites of the losses and victories during the movement's long and arduous path, those way points on a long, difficult and still incomplete road to equality under the law.
A poignant urban walk, Birmingham’s Civil Rights Memorial Trail wends past seven blocks set off by historical markers and powerful sculptures that depict important moments from the 1950s and 1960s era of the campaign. Of particular note, both here and in the Birmingham Civil Rights Museum, are the reactions and intellectual justifications given by those who opposed civil rights, which are sadly familiar today. As this trail and different museums portray, many carried signs supporting states’ rights (to segregate), "law and order" and their right to protect Southern heritage.
Full story at Lonely Planet