• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Though he was far from acting alone, the Rev. Martin Luther King will forever remain the most prominent face of the struggle for civil rights for African Americans. King – preacher, motivational speaker, activist and promoter of non-violent social change – rose to prominence shortly after the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in 1954 in Brown vs Board of Education of Topeka, Kans, that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Though the ruling paved the way for large-scale desegregation, resistance was widespread and violent. A few months later, when Rosa Parks defied a Southern custom by refusing to give up her seat at the front of the colored section of a public bus to a white man, the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott was launched, led by MLK, Jr.

* * *

TIME

3 – 4 days

DISTANCE

600 miles

BEST TIME TO GO

Mar – May

START

Atlanta, GA

END

Memphis, TN

ALSO GOOD FOR

* * *

This act of defiance set forth in motion the Civil Rights movement, one of the darkest periods in American history. For the next 14 years, MLK, Jr would be the movement’s poster boy, its catalyst and its leader, a man who dedicated his life to the greater good. He paid the ultimate price, as did many others before and after him, when he was shot dead in Tennessee in 1968. Though his voice was silenced, his legacy remains, a story that begins and ends in Atlanta, where he was born, raised and is now buried.

“Today you are not only listening to history, you are walking with history.” No, that wasn’t a famous phrase uttered by MLK, Jr but rather a close friend of his named Reverend Graham Williams, who remains the only living employee at the Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Site who actually knew MLK, Jr. Do yourself a favor and get on a tour of the King Birth Home with Williams, who marched with MLK and was otherwise in the thick of nearly everything you will read about on the Civil Rights movement. He does tours four days a week (days vary).

Reservations for the tour must be made at the Martin Luther King, Jr National Historic Site Visitor’s Center, home to a small interpretive museum chronicling MLK, Jr, who lays entombed in a watery grave at the nearby King Center. The center also has a fascinating exhibit of MLK, Jr’s personal items. One block away is the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where MLK, Jr was baptized and later preached. The church is the heart and soul of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, where MLK, Jr grew up.

If you get hungry while touring the area, Thelma’s Kitchen does righteous soul food in the former space of one of MLK, Jr’s favorite haunts, the Auburn Ave Rib Shack. In downtown Atlanta, the Hyatt Regency was the first area hotel to welcome African Americans – the King Center and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) still do events here today.

But as any good Alabamian will tell you, MLK, Jr might have been born in Atlanta, but it was in Alabama that he became famous. It’s time to head west. From Atlanta, hop on I-20 (west bound) and make your way to Birmingham, home to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. This museum in the round does a wonderful – although scary – job of recreating the segregated world of Birmingham under Jim Crow laws, a series of mandates that ensured No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service included No Blacks. The museum chronicles the plight of Birmingham’s civil rights struggle from the city to all the major hot points. There’s also a rotating art gallery that often features African American artists. Across the street is the Sixteenth St Baptist Church, bombed by the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) in 1963 after a ruling to desegregate Birmingham’s schools. Four young schoolchildren were killed. It was here that same year that MLK, Jr was arrested and jailed for protesting anti-segregation laws. From his cell, he penned his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail, arguing that human beings have a moral duty to disobey unjust laws.

* * *

REVEREND BERNICE KING

“The civil