Dear Friend of the National Parks,

Join NPCA experts on this remarkable journey 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 who played a role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s. You will also learn firsthand about NPCA’s role in expanding cultural resource protections to help preserve the story of civil rights.

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

Your NPCA Host: Alan Spears, NPCA’s Senior Director of Cultural Resources

Alan is a 22-year veteran of NPCA. He is a member of the Government Affairs department, the staff lead for an emerging cultural resources team and NPCA’s resident historian. Alan helped to win national monument designations for Fort Monroe, Harriet Tubman and Birmingham Civil Rights. He currently conducts our National Heritage Area defense work and leads NPCA’s campaigns to designate new national park sites for Julius Rosenwald and Emmett Till.

The Itinerary

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. The group will explore the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which houses the cell door behind which Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. penned his famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” We will then meet with Rev. Carolyn McKinstry, a survivor of the 1963 bombing 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 with the freedom to eat dinner at one of Montgomery’s famed southern style restaurants.

From there, 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. Here, we will meet with Joanne Bland who, at 11 years old in 1965, was the youngest person to have been jailed during any civil rights demonstration during that period. Then we will walk across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

In Jackson, Mississippi, we will visit the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum where we will meet Hezekiah Watkins, the state’s youngest Freedom Rider, who will share his extraordinary story with the group. For Civil War buffs, we will then 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,” with a private performance with local musician Bluesman McKinney.

Departing Jackson, we’ll head north through the flatlands of the Mississippi Delta, stopping first in Cleveland to meet with Dr. Rolando Herts, director of the Delta Center for Culture and Learning and executive director of the Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area. From there, we’ll continue through multiple small towns along the Mississippi Freedom Trail to the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Sumner Court House, which together tell the story of the brutal murder of Emmett Till and point a way toward racial healing.

Our program concludes in Memphis, Tennessee, with a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum at The Lorraine Motel, the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. We will then explore the world renowned Stax Museum of American Soul Music, which provides insight into the civil rights story within the Memphis music scene, and meet with Jeff Kollath, the executive director of the museum. Trip participants depart from Memphis the following morning.

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: 16th Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Alabama © Distant Horizons; National Memorial for Peace and Justice © Distant Horizons; Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Alabama © James Kirkikis/Dreamstime.com; Vicksburg National Military Park © Jack Rogers/Dreamstime.com; Bryants Grocery Sign © Distant Horizons; Lorraine Hotel © Distant Horizons