History Tour – River Region

Alabama’s River Region has long been known for its history and culture. Your groups will trace the footsteps of the individuals who helped to change this world.

Day 1

Begin your tour in Selma where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched the Voting Rights March. Tour the National Voting Rights Museum & Institute. Visit the Old Depot Museum with artifacts from Native American days.

After lunch, depart Selma for Montgomery. Travel over the Edmund Pettus Bridge where voting rights marchers were confronted by law enforcement personnel which eventually led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Travel along the Historic Selma-to-Montgomery Trail with a stop at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center. Managed by the National Parks Service, this center explains in easy-to-understand exhibits the complexity of race relations in the South which led to the march.

Day 2

In Montgomery, begin your tour at Alabama’s State Capitol. Next, visit Old Alabama Town, where students can visualize what life was like in Alabama in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Visit the restored and expanded Department of Archives and History, the oldest facility of its kind in the country. Tour The First White of the Confederacy, home of President Jefferson Davis and his family who lived there while Montgomery was the Capital of the Confederate States of America. Visit the Rosa Parks Museum & Children’s Wing where students can “go back in time” on the Cleveland Avenue Time Machine to discover Alabama’s Civil Rights history. At the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & Parsonage, students will learn about the work and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., one of the world’s greatest martyrs for human and civil rights. Overnight in the area.

Day 3

Before departing Montgomery, visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center, which pays tribute to the soldiers of the Civil Rights Movement who gave their lives for freedom.

Depart Montgomery for Tuskegee, the home of Tuskegee University. Visit the George Washington Carver Museum, which focuses on Dr. Carver’s work in agriculture, chemistry and chemurgy. Visit the Tuskegee Airmen Museum Historic Site and Moton Field where the famed black aviators known as the Tuskegee Airmen rewrote history as fighter pilots during World War II. Tour the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, and view photography and videos about the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Overnight in the area.