No other city plays such a pivotal role in the Civil Rights movement as Montgomery, Alabama. The sleepy state capital was not only where Rosa Parks made history and Martin Luther King Jr., made his name. But it’s where Freedom Riders were beaten, and National Guard troops had to protect the city from exploding. It’s […]
What is the power of a memorial? In Montgomery, the Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice has singlehandedly made the nation confront its violent racial past. Until its debut in 2018, mentioning racial violence like lynching was still taboo. Some museums made reference, but for the most part, it was too much […]
When Alabama Gov. George Wallace positioned himself defiantly at the entrance to a University of Alabama gymnasium in 1963, he created a moment and phrase that still echoes half a century later. His “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door” was an attempt to keep African-Americans out of the state’s flagship university in Tuscaloosa. The politician, who […]
Tuskegee offers the one of the most inspiring sites on the civil rights trail, and one of the most appalling. The historic college town’s home to the heroic Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site, honoring a group of African-American fighter pilots who battled the Nazis abroad and prejudice at home. But the city’s also where […]