Six Cities to Explore Martin Luther King’s History
Lists: From Atlanta to Washington, D.C., Larry Bleiberg highlights the must-see places where the civil rights leader lived and made history
Birmingham, Alabama
See the cell where King wrote his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail. Confront police dogs captured in mid-attack, visit the church where four girls were murdered in Sunday school.
When King pastored in Montgomery, Alabama, he was a frequent visitor to Birmingham and came to know the city’s racial strife—and its African-American leaders.
It would be hard to understate the city’s role in civil-rights history. The city, once known for police-dog attacks and murder, is now a leader in preserving the history of the civil-rights era. Today visitors find a sophisticated city that looks forward while helping visitors explore its rocky, racial history.
King’s letter from Birmingham Jail—an eloquent plea for non-violent protest—has been called the most important document of the era. It was scribbled on the margins of a newspaper after his arrest during 1963’s Birmingham Campaign that would eventually end segregation in the South. King’s actual jail cell is displayed at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.
- Start your visit with a visceral trip to the past in Kelly Ingram Park, where statues of attack dogs snarl at tourists as they once menaced non-violent protesters, including women and children. Even nearly 50 years after the 1963 marches, which King helped organize, a visitor recoils at the assault, and can only imagine the horror protesters faced. Statues of King and other ministers are also shown.
- The moving and extensive Birmingham Civil Rights Institute includes a burned Greyhound bus, a tribute to the Freedom Riders who were attacked in Birmingham during the historic 1961 protest to desegregate interstate transportation through the South. Riders were beaten in Anniston, Alabama, about 60 miles to the east. When protesters arrived in Birmingham on Mother’s Day, they were brutalized as well.
- Birmingham’s most notorious site is the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, located across the street from the park and Civil Rights Institute. Klansmen placed ten sticks of dynamite by the building in 1963, showering stained glass on worshippers and killing four girls attending Sunday school. The church, which served as a staging area for the 1963 marches, is open for tours by appointment. A memorial area remembers the victims, and a wall clock is forever stopped at 10:22, the time of the explosion. King spoke at the funeral for three of the girls.
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daniel 01.19.10 | 2:04 AM ET
I would add Chicago to this list, arguably the site of his greatest failure.
Larry Bleiberg 01.20.10 | 11:02 AM ET
Good suggestion. King said that he had never seen resistance like he had in Chicago. Said it was worse than anything he had seen in the Deep South. The Chicago Tribune just ran a good overview, including video: http://bit.ly/60t6OH