Understanding the Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, Alabama

Arrive independently in Montgomery, Alabama and transfer to the Elevation Hotel, conceived and developed by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI).

This afternoon, depart the hotel for a visit to the Centennial Hill area of Montgomery. The group will be met by Dr. Valda Harris Montgomery, daughter of Richard and Vera Harris who were closely connected to the leaders and activists of the movement. Their home is located just four houses down from Dexter Parsonage, where Dr. King lived while he was the pastor at Dexter Street Church. Dr. Harris was 13 when John Lewis showed up in the early hours of the morning at her parents' house, beaten, bloodied, exhausted and looking for refuge from a white mob. Her parents opened the door to their home as they did for so many others.

Enjoy a short walking tour and a visit to the Harris’ home before a welcome dinner.

Overnight: Elevation Hotel

Meals: D

This morning, board a boat on the Alabama River to visit the newly opened Equal Justice Initiative’s Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. The 17-acre park is filled with sculptures, historic slave dwellings, relocated from plantations around the south, and other artifacts. The centerpiece of the site is the National Monument to Freedom, which stands 43 feet tall and 150 feet long. It is inscribed with more than 120,000 surnames of Black people who were emancipated at the end of the Civil War. The names were taken primarily from the 1870 U.S. Census, which was the first federal census conducted after Emancipation.

After lunch, visit the Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration which traces the history of the United States from slavery through Reconstruction, racial terror lynching, segregation, and the modern era of mass incarceration. Created by the Equal Justice Initiative, the museum uses powerful first-person narratives, archival materials, sculpture, and immersive exhibits to connect the past to contemporary systems of injustice.

Next to the hotel is the newest EJI site, Montgomery Square This site is dedicated to the decade (1955-1965) when African American residents with extraordinary courage and determination stood up against racial injustice and sparked a movement that transformed our country and the world. 

Return to the hotel to enjoy dinner at AYA Soulful Dining, whose menu draws from African, Caribbean, and Southern culinary traditions.

Overnight: Elevation Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

This morning, visit the Equal Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peace and Justice. This site was conceived with the hope of creating a sober, meaningful site where people can gather and reflect on America’s history of racial inequality. 

Transfer via motorcoach (~ 40 minutes) to the Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site for a guided tour and to learn about the work of Booker T. Washington, an early advocate for the education of African Americans in the post-Reconstruction south.

Lunch will be provided at the center by locally owned restaurant, Blue Seas 2 Restaurant.

Next door is the Tuskegee History Center, formerly known as the Tuskegee Human & Civil Rights Multicultural Center where we will meet a member of Attorney Fred Gray’s team. Attorney Gray is a renowned Civil Rights attorney, preacher, activist, and state legislator from Alabama. His career has spanned several major legal cases including representing Rosa Parks after her refusal to give up her seat on the greyhound bus, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.

A few minutes away is the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site which commemorates the contributions of African American airmen in World War II. Enjoy a short film and a chance to admire the planes and equipment the Tuskegee Airmen used. 

Return to the hotel for an evening at leisure.

Overnight: Elevation Hotel

Meals: B, L

This morning, depart for Selma via motor coach (~ 1 hour). Along the way, stop at the Lowndes Visitor Center which is dedicated to those who peacefully marched 54 miles from Selma to the state’s capitol in Montgomery in order to gain the right to vote.

Upon arrival in Selma, experience a visit of the Brown Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church, the site of Malcolm X’s address in support of voting rights, Dr. King’s eulogy for Jimmie Lee Jackson, and Jackson’s funeral. Three marches from Selma to Montgomery began from this church, which also served as the temporary headquarters for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Enjoy a specially prepared lunch by AC Reeves in the former 5&Dime store that will be open privately for our group. 

Walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where, on March 21, 1965, marchers walked for five days to Montgomery camping during the night in the fields of farmers sympathetic to their cause. Follow the marcher’s route and drive along the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail (54 miles). The Trail commemorates the events, people, and route of the 1965 Voting Rights March in Alabama.

Continue to Montgomery stopping at various historical markers including one dedicated to Viola Liuzzo, a white Unitarian Universalist committed to work for education and economic justice, and another dedicated to Elmore Bolling, a successful black entrepreneur and philanthropist who defied all odds to create an integrated array of transportation and farming businesses in the Jim Crow South.

Enjoy a farewell dinner at Bricklayers Hall, built by a Black union at a time when unions were unpopular in the South. During the early months of the bus boycott, the Montgomery Improvement Association—led by the Rev. King and others—operated out of local churches before moving its headquarters here. Within these walls, MIA staff members wrote checks to Black-owned gas stations that fueled the carpools, and the MIA Newsletter was printed on-site. It was also from inside this hall that King ultimately called for an end to the 381-day boycott.

Renowned singer and Civil Rights activist Wanda Battle, along with local musician and historian Cedric, will lead us in freedom songs.

Overnight: Elevation Hotel

Meals: B, L, D

Independent transfers to the airport for return flights home.