Dear Friend of the National Parks,

I hope you'll consider joining NPCA experts on a remarkable journey this October through some of the most significant sites associated with American civil rights. Along the way, you will have a unique opportunity to meet with NPCA partners, local historians and even some of the faithful activists known as foot soldiers who actively played a role in the civil rights movement of the 1960’s. Learn firsthand about NPCA’s role in expanding cultural resource protections to help preserve the story of civil rights. This travel program allows you to experience cultural elements, such as food and music, that defined the period.

On the Road to Freedom
Understanding Civil Rights Through Our National Parks and Heritage Areas
October 1-8, 2021

Come experience important contributors to African American musical culture while being immersed in the rich, soulful history of the Delta region. Along the way, you will have a unique opportunity to meet with NPCA partners and some of the “foot soldiers” who actively played a role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Learn firsthand about NPCA’s role in expanding cultural resource protections to help preserve the story of civil rights.

Our program begins in Birmingham, Alabama, where we will visit the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, a national park site that NPCA helped establish in 2017. We will visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which houses the actual jail cell door behind which Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” We will then stop at the historic 16th Street Baptist Church before traveling to the future home of the new Freedom Center, an educational hub that will focus on civil rights and other cultural topics.

Next, we will visit Montgomery, Alabama, where we will see the former home of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King and the Legacy Museum, which tells the history of racial inequality and economic injustice in the United States. Then, we will venture to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a site that explores America’s history of racial inequality and the ongoing history of lynching in America. Later in the evening, you will explore the city at your leisure and enjoy dinner at one of Montgomery’s famed Southern-style restaurants if you choose.

Afterward, while en route to Jackson, Mississippi, we will stop at two National Park Service sites: the Lowndes Interpretive Center and the Selma Interpretive Center. The Selma Interpretive Center marks the beginning of the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail where we will walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

In Jackson, we will visit the home of Medgar Evers, as well as the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. We’ll stop at Farish Street, listed on the National Register of Historic Places for being the thriving center of African American life in Jackson during the Jim Crow era and an economically independent Black community until the 1980s. For Civil War buffs, we will visit Vicksburg National Military Park, where the Confederacy surrendered to Union forces in 1863. That evening, we will be introduced to the most famous of Delta musical traditions, the Blues.

Our program includes a day in the Mississippi Delta exploring Mound Bayou, a town founded in 1887 by former slaves, and the town of Sumner, where the trial of Emmett Till took place. We will end in Memphis, where we will explore the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, as well as the world renowned Stax Museum of American Soul Music, whose music and artist roster influenced artists such as the Rolling Stones, the Doors and countless others.

Click here to download the full trip brochure (PDF, 5 MB).

To learn more and reserve your spot today, contact me at 202-454-3305 or [email protected]. Thank you for your support!

See you in the parks,


Jared Dial
Travel Program Manager

Photos, top to bottom: photo collage © Distant Horizons/Jared Dial; 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama © Distant Horizons; Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama © Distant Horizons.