“You don’t change the world with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction in your heart.” —Bryan Stevenson (born 1959)
Why plan a civil rights road trip?
We don’t need to shame ourselves by learning shameful history, we need to learn from it. The truth of America lives in the places where history was made. In 2025, the intention to wipe out local microhistories is on the rise. Living bridges to the past awakens White fragility. Instead of teaching how to cope with discomforting truths, ICE is given free rein to search and detain immigrants in any community in any State, harkening back to the Fugitive Slave Act, first passed by Congress 230 years ago.
Plan a trip around civil rights landmarks and Sites of Conscience www.sitesofconscience.org where Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities still have the ability to tell their own stories, their own history. Place-based learning is a powerful tool of resistance against the rewriting of history in the classroom due to partisan politics. If travel is out of reach, armchair travel! Stay home and support your local libraries and booksellers. Book banning also denies people the right to tell their stories.
SITES TO SEE: MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
Civil Rights Memorial by Maya Lin, Southern Poverty Law Center
The Legacy Museum, Equal Justice Initiative
The National Memorial to Peace and Justice
National Historic Trail begins at the Brown Chapel, African American Episcopal Church, Selma, follows the 1965 historic route to Montgomery, end at the top of the stairs of the Alabama State Capital, Montgomery
SITES TO SEE: BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
“The foot soldiers of Birmingham, “by Ronald S. McDowell, Kelly Ingram Park
16th Street Baptist Church
Historic marker, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
SITES TO SEE: JOHN BROWN
John Brown Farm State Historic Site, Lake Placid, NY
Harper’s Ferry Historical Museum and John Brown’s Fort, Harper’s Ferry, VIRGINIA
The Kennedy Farm, Washington County, MARYLAND
Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
SITES TO SEE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington D.C.
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, TENNESSEE
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, GEORGIA
Historic marker, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
SITES TO SEE: HARRIET TUBMAN, EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND TO WESTERN NEW YORK STATE
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, self-guided driving tour
Harriet Tubman’s home and barn, Auburn, NY
New York State Equal Rights Heritage and Visitor’s Center, Auburn, NY
Harriet Tubman Monument by Nina Cooke, Newark, NJ
SITES TO SEE: MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA
Civil Rights Memorial by Maya Lin, Southern Poverty Law Center
The Legacy Museum, Equal Justice Initiative
The National Memorial to Peace and Justice
National Historic Trail begins at the Brown Chapel, African American Episcopal Church, Selma, follows the 1965 historic route to Montgomery, end at the top of the stairs of the Alabama State Capital, Montgomery
SITES TO SEE: BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA
Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
“The foot soldiers of Birmingham, “by Ronald S. McDowell, Kelly Ingram Park
16th Street Baptist Church
Historic marker, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
SITES TO SEE: JOHN BROWN
John Brown Farm State Historic Site, Lake Placid, NY
Harper’s Ferry Historical Museum and John Brown’s Fort, Harper’s Ferry, VIRGINIA
The Kennedy Farm, Washington County, MARYLAND
Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA.
SITES TO SEE: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington D.C.
National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, Memphis, TENNESSEE
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc., Atlanta, GEORGIA
Historic marker, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail
SITES TO SEE: HARRIET TUBMAN, EASTERN SHORE OF MARYLAND TO WESTERN NEW YORK STATE
Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, self-guided driving tour
Harriet Tubman’s home and barn, Auburn, NY
New York State Equal Rights Heritage and Visitor’s Center, Auburn, NY
Harriet Tubman Monument by Nina Cooke, Newark, NJ
