United States Civil Rights Trail

United States Civil Rights Trail Map

Following the Dalai Lama's 2014 tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights District,[1][2][3] U.S. President Barack Obama instructed the National Park Service to create more diversity among the nation’s UNESCO World Heritage sites, with particular focus on civil rights.[4][5] At Alabama’s request in 2016, a Georgia State University team led by Glenn T. Eskew researched and identified 60 civil rights landmarks as potential UNESCO candidates.[6][7] This initiative evolved into the Alabama Civil Rights Trail.[5]

State tourism departments from Alabama,[8] Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina,[9] South Carolina, Tennessee,[10] Virginia,[11] and West Virginia,[12] collectively known as the Atlanta-based Travel South USA trade association, added more sites and formed a parallel U.S. Civil Rights Trail.[13][14]

Work on the trail began in 2017[15][16] with the web site CivilRightsTrail.com launched on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2018.[17][18]

The Trail includes more than 100 landmark sites in 15 states, several of which are operated by the National Park Service (NPS).[19][20][21][22][23] In 2017, President Obama conferred NPS designations to establish the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument; the Freedom Riders National Monument in Anniston, Alabama; and the Reconstruction Era National Historical Park in Beaufort County, South Carolina.[24][25][26] In 2017, the home of Medgar Evers and Civile Rights Trail landmark in Jackson, Mississippi was designated the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument.[27][28][29]

On November 5, 2019, the International Travel & Tourism Awards named the U.S. Civil Rights Trail as Best Regional Destination Campaign its first year of eligibility.[30][31][32][33]

In January 2021, the Smithsonian Institution and The New York Times became the first two national cultural organizations to sponsor escorted tours of the trail,[34][35][36][37] followed by international firms Abercrombie & Kent and Trafalgar Travel.[38][39]

In January 21, Moon Publishing released Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail, a travel guide by Deborah D. Douglas.[40][41]

The Official United States Civil Rights Trail Book, by Alabama tourism director Lee Sentell, was published in June 2021 as a companion book to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.[42][43][44]

• Meridian Civil Rights Trail, Mississippi

• Sentell, Lee (2021). The official United States Civil Rights Trail : what happened here changed the world. Art Meripol (First ed.). Birmingham, AL. ISBN 978-1-57571-993-1. OCLC 1265302407.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Douglas, Deborah D. (2021). Moon U.S. civil rights trail : a traveler's guide to the people, places, and events that made the movement. Bree Newsome Bass, Avalon Travel (1st ed.). Berkeley, CA. ISBN 978-1-64049-915-7. OCLC 1153664052.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Official website