Begin your tour in Atlanta by visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site featuring a film and exhibits related to Dr. King and the civil rights movement. Tour the restored King birth home and see his tomb which sits atop a beautiful reflecting pool in Freedom Plaza. Call 404-331-5190 or visit .The African American Panoramic Experience (APEX) is a black history museum featuring a treasure trove of art and history. It also includes a theatre highlighting the historic Sweet Auburn Avenue district, the center of African American life in Atlanta from the 1890s to 1940s. Call 404-521-APEX
Many of the major events that defined the modern civil rights movement in America took place in Alabama during the 1950s and 1960s. A number of its black heritage attractions are situated within the triangle formed by Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma. Montgomery is known as the birthplace of the civil rights movement; and features the Civil Rights Memorial, a black granite fountain that bears the inscribed names of 40 individuals who lost their lives during the civil rights struggle from 1954 to 1968. Call 334-956-8200 or visit The interpretive Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery offers a multi-media presentation depicting events that started the bus boycott and early civil rights movement. Call 334-241-8615
The Selma to Montgomery voting rights march of 1965 was a signature event of the Civil Rights Movement and perhaps one of the most notable peaceful protests of all time. Its landmark site is the National Voting Rights Museum that documents the struggles and accomplishments of the Voting Rights Movement of the 1960s through pictorial displays. Call 334-418-0800 or visit Visit the Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church where Dr. King launched the voting rights movement; and the Old Depot Museum, an interpretive history museum in an 1891 railway depot that features artifacts dating from 1814 through the voting rights era. Call 334-874-2197
Few cities played as prominent a role in the Civil Rights Movement as Birmingham. Located downtown is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute featuring multi-media galleries and interactive exhibitions that take you on a journey through the past toward a vision for the future. Call 866-328-9696
The National African-American Archives & Museum in Mobile houses documents, records, photographs, books, African carvings, furniture and a special collection of slavery artifacts, including shackles, leg irons, slave bracelets and slave collars. Call 251-433-8511
