7 Places to Learn About Alabama’s Civil Rights History this 2025

Where the Past Still Speaks

Alabama isn’t just where the Civil Rights Movement happened. It’s where people put their lives on the line to change the country.

If you grew up here, you know these places aren’t just for tourists. They’re part of our history, and if you haven’t been, it’s time to go.

16th Street Baptist Church (Birmingham)

Everybody around here knows what happened on September 15, 1963.

A bomb killed four African American girls during Sunday school. It wasn’t random. The Klan did it to send a message, but all they did was make people fight harder.

The church is still open and continues to function as a house of worship, and the tour takes you through the basement where the bomb went off. The stained-glass window in the back was a gift from Wales after the attack.

One of the girl’s shoes is on display too.

Edmund Pettus Bridge (Selma)

Most people think about Bloody Sunday, but there were actually three marches from Selma to Montgomery.

The first one, on March 7, 1965, is the one where state troopers attacked peaceful protestors. It was all over national TV. The bridge is named after a Confederate general who was also a Grand Dragon in the Klan, which makes it even more important that it became a symbol of the movement.

Walking across it, you can still see the worn-down concrete where thousands of feet marched for voting rights.

The Rosa Parks Museum (Montgomery)

The museum sits right where Rosa Parks was arrested on December 1, 1955. Everybody knows that part, but the boycott that followed lasted 381 days.

People walked miles to work instead of riding segregated buses. The museum’s got the original police reports and even the fingerprint card from her arrest. They also have a restored 1955 bus where they reenact what happened that night.

The Children’s Wing talks about the kids who helped keep the boycott going.

Kelly Ingram Park (Birmingham)

If you’ve ever walked through this park, you know it’s not just a park. This is where police turned fire hoses and dogs on kids in 1963. The sculptures here don’t sugarcoat it.

There’s one with snarling police dogs lunging at children, and another of kids trapped behind bars. The park was renamed in 1932 for a Navy sailor from Alabama, but in 1992, they turned it into a civil rights memorial.

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute is right across the street.

Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (Montgomery)

Dr. King was only 25 when he became pastor here in 1954. Just a year later, he was leading the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

The church was originally called Second Colored Baptist Church, but in 1978, they changed the name to honor him. The inside looks just like it did back then, and the basement still has the tables where they planned the boycott.

The old slave market used to be just up the street, which makes the church’s history even more powerful.

Legacy Museum & National Memorial for Peace and Justice (Montgomery)

This is the hardest place on the list to visit, but it’s also the most important.

The museum was built where enslaved people were once held before being sold. It covers slavery, segregation, mass incarceration, and racial terror in the U.S.

The memorial down the road has over 800 hanging steel monuments, each representing a county where a lynching happened. Some counties still haven’t claimed theirs.

The further you walk, the higher the slabs rise, making it clear how many people were killed.

Brown Chapel AME Church (Selma)

This church was the headquarters for the Selma marches in 1965. It’s not just a historic building. It’s where people gathered before crossing Edmund Pettus Bridge. It was built in 1908 by an African American contractor named A.J. Farley.

The Alabama Register of Landmarks and Heritage recognized it in 1976, and it became a National Historic Landmark in 1997. The stained glass and old wooden pews have seen more history than most people realize.