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Georgia/Alabama

The Civil Rights Movement: Atlanta, Montgomery, Selma, Birmingham

Program No. 22657RJ
Journey through the Deep South to learn the history of the Civil Rights Movement and its defining clashes. Hear powerful stories of struggle and be inspired by resilient heroes.

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At a Glance

Journey south into the heart of the civil rights movement to gain a deeper understanding of the historic and continued struggle for racial equality in the United States. Follow in the footsteps of the venerable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legendary marches, and hear the moving story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. Walk across the Selma Bridge with an activist who took part in the peaceful protest that devolved into unforgivable violence known as “Bloody Sunday.” Pay homage at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church as you learn the story of the victims of the 1963 KKK bombing. Study how these catalysts ignited a movement that would define this pivotal moment in American history, and discuss how they echo through the racial climate in America today.
Activity Level
On Your Feet
This programs involves walking up to two miles daily over uneven terrain. Standing for lectures in museums up to an hour. Some historical structures have stairs/no elevator.

Best of all, you’ll…

  • Commemorate the central figures of civil rights on field trips to the Rosa Parks Museum, Georgia State Capitol and the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.
  • Follow the path of heroic marches through Atlanta and Birmingham and from Selma to Montgomery, now a National Historic Trail.
  • Learn from an activist who was a witness and participant in some of America’s most significant civil rights battles.

General Notes

Select dates are designated for small groups and are limited to 24 participants or less.
Featured Expert
All Experts
Profile Image
Dianne Harris
Dianne Harris has received the Congressional Foot Soldier Medal and Certificate, as well as numerous other medals and awards for her ongoing fight for racial equality. She is an avid public speaker, appearing on NBC Today in 2015 and is often interviewed by newspapers, magazines and other media outlets for her unending vigil for justice. She remembers her involvement in the movement like it was yesterday. She particularly remembers listening to Martin Luther King and the events of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.

Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Profile Image of Larry Spruill
Larry Spruill View biography
Dr. Larry Spruill is a graduate of the State University of New York system. It provided social programs which afforded disadvantaged students opportunities to experience upward social mobility. His academic career began in an upstate New York community college and introduced him to the rigors of higher education and facilitated his entrance into doctoral studies. He is a retired school principal specialist and instructor and currently a full-time professor of history at Morehouse College, Georgia. He also served as a foreign missionary, teacher and pastor.
Profile Image of Dianne Harris
Dianne Harris View biography
Dianne Harris has received the Congressional Foot Soldier Medal and Certificate, as well as numerous other medals and awards for her ongoing fight for racial equality. She is an avid public speaker, appearing on NBC Today in 2015 and is often interviewed by newspapers, magazines and other media outlets for her unending vigil for justice. She remembers her involvement in the movement like it was yesterday. She particularly remembers listening to Martin Luther King and the events of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama.
Profile Image of Terrie Dal Pozzo
Terrie Dal Pozzo View biography
Terrie was raised in New Orleans and moved to the U.S. Virgin Islands at the age of 18. She became the youngest woman in the Virgin Islands to obtain a Coast Guard license to operate motor and sailing vessels. Terrie skippered sailing vessels, taking guests on journeys through the Leeward Islands, teaching them to sail and snorkel and educating them on island life. She later lived in Kitzbuhel, Austria and Perth, Australia before returning to the Virgin Islands. She currently lives in eastern Tennessee.
Profile Image of Denise Swain
Denise Swain View biography
Denise Swain is a Southerner who loves sharing the culture, climate, and curiosity of the Deep South. Her hometown was the coastal region of Georgia, better known as the Golden Isles. Denise resides today in northern Alabama. Her passion is to keep stories alive while enabling participants to observe sometimes overlooked people and spaces. She is a certified exploration director and spent more than 40 years in the advertising industry. She now enjoys hiking, biking, outdoor concerts, and leading Road Scholar groups on educational adventures.
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: A Saga of Race and Family
by Gary M. Pomerantz
A fascinating tale of two cities told through the rise of two of Atlanta's most illustrious political families...highly significant in what it reveals about ambition, hard work, success, and race relations.
Politics, Civil Rights, and Law in Black Atlanta 1870-1970
by Herman "Skip" Mason, Jr.
Selma, Lord, Selma: Girlhood Memories of the Civil Rights
by Sheyann Webb-Christburg, Rachel West Nelson Millhouse, Frank Sikorand
Sheyann Webb was eight years old and Rachel West was nine when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. arrived in Selma, Alabama, on January 2, 1965. He came to organize non-violent demonstrations against discriminatory voting laws. Selma, Lord, Selma is their firsthand account of the events from that turbulent winter of 1965--events that changed not only the lives of these two little girls but the lives of all Alabamians and all Americans. From 1975 to 1979, award-winning journalist Frank Sikora conducted interviews with Webb and West, weaving their recollections into this luminous story of fear and courage, struggle a
Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s Through the 1980s
by Henry Hampton and Steve Fayer
In this monumental volume, Henry Hampton, creator and executive producer of the acclaimed PBS series Eyes on the Prize, and Steve Fayer, series writer, draw upon nearly one thousand interviews with civil rights activists, politicians, reporters, Justice Department officials, and hundreds of ordinary people who took part in the struggle, weaving a fascinating narrative of the civil rights movement told by the people who lived it. Join brave and terrified youngsters walking through a jeering mob and up the steps of Central High School in Little Rock. Listen to the vivid voices of the ordinary people who manned the barricades, the laborers, the students, the housewives without whom there would have been no civil rights movements at all. This remarkable oral history brings to life country's great struggle for civil rights as no conventional narrative can. You will hear the voices of those who defied the blackjacks, who went to jail, who witnessed and policed the movement; of those who stood for and against it—voices from the heart of America.
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror
by Equal Justice Initiative
Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror documents EJI's multi-year investigation into lynching in twelve Southern states during the period between Reconstruction and World War II. EJI researchers documented 4075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950 - at least 800 more lynchings of black people in these states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date. Lynching in America makes the case that lynching of African Americans was terrorism, a widely supported phenomenon used to enforce racial subordination and segregation. Lynchings were violent and public events that traumatized black people throughout the country and were largely tolerated by state and federal officials.
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965
by Juan Williams and Julian Bond
From the Montgomery bus boycott to the Little Rock Nine to the Selma–Montgomery march, thousands of ordinary people who participated in the American civil rights movement; their stories are told in Eyes on the Prize. From leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., to lesser-known figures such as Barbara Rose Johns and Jim Zwerg, each man and woman made the decision that somethinghad to be done to stop discrimination. These moving accounts and pictures of the first decade of the civil rights movement are a tribute to the people, black and white, who took part in the fight for justice and the struggle they endured.
Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement
by John Lewis and Michael D'Orso
The award-winning national bestseller, Walking with the Wind, is one of our most important records of the American civil rights movement. Told by John Lewis, who Cornel West calls a “national treasure,” this is a gripping first-hand account of the fight for civil rights and the courage it takes to change a nation. In 1957, a teenaged boy named John Lewis left a cotton farm in Alabama for Nashville, the epicenter of the struggle for civil rights in America. Lewis’s adherence to nonviolence guided that critical time and established him as one of the movement’s most charismatic and courageous leaders. Lewis’s leadership in the Nashville Movement—a student-led effort to desegregate the city of Nashville using sit-in techniques based on the teachings of Gandhi—set the tone for major civil rights campaigns of the 1960s. Lewis traces his role in the pivotal Selma marches, Bloody Sunday, and the Freedom Rides. Inspired by his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lewis’s vision and perseverance altered history. In 1986, he ran and won a congressional seat in Georgia, and remains in office to this day, continuing to enact change. The late Edward M. Kennedy said of Lewis, “John tells it like it was…Lewis spent most of his life walking against the wind of the times, but he was surely walking with the wind of history.”
Courage to Dissent: Atlanta and the Long History of the Civil Rights Movement
by Tomiko Brown-Nagin
The Civil Rights movement that emerged in the United States after World War II was a reaction against centuries of racial discrimination. In this sweeping history of the Civil Rights movement in Atlanta--the South's largest and most economically important city--from the 1940s through 1980, Tomiko Brown-Nagin shows that the movement featured a vast array of activists and many sophisticated approaches to activism. Long before "black power" emerged and gave black dissent from the mainstream civil rights agenda a new name, African Americans in Atlanta debated the meaning of equality and the steps necessary to obtain social and economic justice. This groundbreaking book uncovers the activism of visionaries--both well-known legal figures and unsung citizens--from across the ideological spectrum who sought something different from, or more complicated than, "integration." Local activists often played leading roles in carrying out the integrationist agenda of the NAACP, but some also pursued goals that differed markedly from those of the venerable civil rights organization. Brown-Nagin discusses debates over politics, housing, public accommodations, and schools. She documents how the bruising battle over school desegregation in the 1970s, which featured opposing camps of African Americans, had its roots in the years before Brown v. Board of Education.
A Perilous Path: Talking Race, Inequality, and the Law
by by Bryan Stevenson, Loretta Lynch, and Sherrilyn Ifill
This blisteringly candid discussion of the American dilemma in the age of Trump brings together the head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the former attorney general of the United States, a bestselling author and death penalty lawyer, and a star professor for an honest conversation the country desperately needs to hear. Drawing on their collective decades of work on civil rights issues as well as personal histories of rising from poverty and oppression, these leading lights of the legal profession and the fight for racial justice talk about the importance of reclaiming the racial narrative and keeping our eyes on the horizon as we work for justice in an unjust time.
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8 days
7 nights
17 meals
7 B 5 L 5 D
DAY
1
Check-in, Registration, Orientation, Dinner
Atlanta, Georgia
D
Hyatt Place Buckhead Atlanta

Activity note: Hotel check-in from 4:00 p.m.

Afternoon: Program Registration: At 5:00 p.m. after you have your room assignment, come over to the Road Scholar table in the conference room to register with the program staff and get your welcome packet containing an up-to-date schedule that reflects any last-minute changes, and to learn when and where the Orientation session will take place. If your arrival is delayed, please ask for your packet when you check in. Orientation: The Group Leader will greet everyone with a warm welcome and lead introductions. We will review the up-to-date program schedule and any changes, discuss roles and responsibilities, logistics, safety guidelines, emergency procedures, and answer any questions you may have. We will review COVID-19 protocols and will adhere to local COVID-19 guidelines and requirements throughout the program All lectures and field trips will be led by local experts unless specified otherwise. All transfers and transportation will be via motorcoach. Free time is reserved for your personal independent exploration. Please note that program activities, schedules, and personnel may need to change due to local circumstances. In the event of changes, we will alert you as quickly as possible. Thank you for your understanding.

Dinner: At a local restaurant one block away. We will walk to the restaurant from our hotel.

Evening: Continue getting to know your fellow Road Scholars, settle in, and get a good night’s rest for the day ahead.

DAY
2
Civil Rights Time Line, Atlanta Capitol, Sweet Auburn
Atlanta, Georgia
B,L,D
Hyatt Place Buckhead Atlanta

Activity note: Walking up to 2 miles throughout the day. Standing for museum viewing and walks in museums. Getting on and off transportation.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: In the conference room, start the morning off with an expert who will set the tone for your civil rights and freedom exploration in Georgia and Alabama. The civil rights movement took place mainly during the 1950s and 1960s. The movement was for Black Americans to gain equal rights under the law. Although the Civil War officially abolished slavery, it didn’t end discrimination against Black people. They continued to endure the effects of racism, especially in the South. By the mid-20th century, Black Americans along with many white Americans, mobilized and began an unprecedented fight for equality that spanned two decades. The travels you take this week will be your classroom as you learn about the events and the people who brought about change. Afterward, travel via motor coach to the Georgia State Capitol which contains a wealth of Civil Rights History. Portraits range from national figures such as, Martin Luther King Jr. and President Jimmy Carter to first-generation black elected figures such as Grace Hamilton and R. A. Dent. The Capitol also contains portraits representing the opponents of civil rights such as Eugene Talmadge and Lester Maddox. A visit to the Georgia State Capitol will provide the forum for a lively discussion of Southern History.

Lunch: At a local restaurant.

Afternoon: After lunch, we'll continue our studies as we travel by motor coach to the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site with our local expert. Managed by the National Park Service, we’ll visit the Martin Luther King Memorial and Dr. & Mrs. King’s Crypt. We will be getting off the motor coach while our expert points out historical facts. The Ebenezer Baptist Church is where King was baptized and both he and his father were pastors. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s funeral was held in this church.

Dinner: At a local restaurant.

Evening: At leisure.

DAY
3
Special Forum, National Civil Rights Museum, Carter Center
Atlanta, Georgia
B,L
Hyatt Place Buckhead Atlanta

Activity note: Sidewalks and uneven terrain may be encountered. Standing in museums up to an hour and a half. Some seating in the Civil Rights Museum. On and off motor coach. Total time on coach is approximately one hour.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: In the conference room, participants will hear from a Morehouse College retired professor on the rationale to use photography and publicity as nonviolent weapons in the struggle for human equality and racial justice. Today’s presentation offers an opportunity to take a closer look at Dr. Martin Luther King’s sophisticated public relations skills. Leaving the hotel by motorcoach, we’ll continue our studies with a visit to The National Center for Civil and Human Rights Museum. This institution seeks to connect the Civil Rights Movement to human rights challenges today. Our visit is self led and takes approximately 90 min from start to finish.

Lunch: At the Carter Center.

Afternoon: After lunch, we will visit the The Jimmy Carter Museum where highlights include a life-size replica of the Oval Office, a dramatic “Day in the Life of the President” presentation on 13 ft. screens, a walk-through cabin setting for the crucial Camp David Meetings exhibition, and an Interactive Map Table that takes you with the Carters to monitor elections and fight diseases. President Jimmy Carter championed racial equality stating "there's no difference with people in the eyes of God". The Presidential Library and Museum is nestled between two lakes on 30 acres of park land and provides a tranquil setting with a view of the Atlanta skyline.

Dinner: This meal has been excluded from the program cost and is on your own to enjoy what you like. The Group Leader will be happy to offer suggestions.

Evening: At leisure.

DAY
4
Montgomery, Rosa Parks, Church, Civil Rights, Freedom Riders
Montgomery, AL
B,L,D
Embassy Suites by Hilton Montgomery Hotel

Activity note: Drive is approximately 160 miles, taking about 2.5 hours. Rest stop along the way. Walking and standing in museums. Incline sidewalk leads to the Civil Rights Memorial.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Check out of the hotel and begin our transfer to Montgomery, Alabama. Upon our arrival in Montgomery, we will stop at the Rosa Parks Museum, a state-of-the-art museum depicting events that started the bus boycott and early Civil Rights movement. It provides an interactive, multi-media presentation. We’ll explore part of the museum with an expert before spending some time on our own to see the exhibits.

Lunch: At a local restaurant

Afternoon: After lunch, we will drive by Dexter Parsonage, home of Martin Luther King while he was pastor in Montgomery. We will end up at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. first preached, at this National Historic Landmark,. This church was also a center point of the Montgomery bus boycott. A dynamic expert will lead us through the history and events that took place that changed the civil rights movement as we enter the church that was so important. We'll then visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center. The Memorial, dedicated in 1989, was designed by Maya Lin, who found inspiration in the paraphrase from Amos 5:24 that King used in his “I Have a Dream” speech: “We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.” On the Memorial’s circular, black granite table, water emerges from the center and flows evenly across a timeline, reminiscent of a sundial, that chronicles the major events of the movement and records the names of 40 men, women and children who were killed during the struggle. Behind the table, a thin sheet of water flows down a 40-foot-long curved, black granite wall on which the words “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream” are inscribed. On the last field trip of the day, we will visit the Freedom Riders Museum where 21 young people transformed our nation's history using nonviolent protest methods. The Museum states that "Freedom Riders, black and white, male and female, none of them older than 22, stepped off a bus at the Montgomery Greyhound Station on May 20, 1961. They were prepared to meet mob violence with non-violence and courage. They prepared farewell letters and wills. Their goal was to help end racial segregation in public transportation. And they did." We'll check into our hotel in the late afternoon.

Dinner: At the hotel.

Evening: Step back in time with a visit from a surprise guest. This moving reenactment connects all the feelings of the Civil Rights Movement and what this special person endured on the bus on that December 1, 1955, day when she refused to give up her seat to a white man.

DAY
5
Legacy Museum and Memorial of Peace & Justice
Montgomery, AL
B
Embassy Suites by Hilton Montgomery Hotel

Activity note: Walking and standing in museums. Walk from hotel to National Legacy Museum is .5 mile.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: This morning we will walk to the National Legacy Museum of Peace and Justice to investigate America's history of racial injustice and its legacy. The Museum is located on the site of a former warehouse where Black people were forced to labor in Montgomery, Alabama. This narrative museum uses interactive media, sculpture, videography, and exhibits on a self led field trip. We'll board our motor coach to travel a short distance to the National Legacy Memorial of Peace and Justice. On a six-acre site atop a rise overlooking Montgomery, the national lynching memorial was started in 2010 and is now a sacred space for thought and reflection about racial terror in America and its legacy.

Lunch: On your own to enjoy what you like in the heart of downtown Montgomery. Walk to many restaurants that surround your hotel and then meet your group leader at a designated spot near your hotel.

Afternoon: After lunch, you'll have free time to explore more sites in downtown Montgomery. You may even want to return to the National Legacy Museum of Peace and Justice, due to the enormous amount of material and videos. Your ticket is good for the day.

Dinner: On your own to enjoy what you like or sample the local fare. Dine individually or join your fellow Road Scholars in one of Montgomery’s many restaurants.

Evening: At leisure. Free to walk around or relax and get ready for the next day.

DAY
6
To Selma, Edmund Pettus Bridge, Local Civil Rights History
Birmingham, AL
B,L,D
Hampton Inn & Suites Birmingham-Downtown-Tutwiler

Activity note: Drive approximately 50 miles, taking about 1 hour. Approximately 90 miles from Selma to Birmingham, taking about 2 hours. Walk over the Edmund Pettus Bridge is .2 mile.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Check out of the hotel and depart for our transfer to Selma. Selma is best known for the 1960s Selma Voting Rights Movement and the Selma to Montgomery marches, beginning with "Bloody Sunday" in March 1965 and ending with 25,000 people entering Montgomery at the end of the last march to press for voting rights. On the way to Selma our group will stop by the Lowndes Interpretive Center for a self led field trip. Upon arriving in Selma, we will be joined by a local expert who will provide commentary. Brown Chapel AME Church is undergoing renovation, therefore, we will meet at the library with a representative from the church to hear about the history and the importance of the church in the movement. We'll then trace the footsteps of the civil rights marchers as we walk across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Lunch: Lunch with students and community at Wallace Community College.

Afternoon: Depart for Birmingham. Arrive and check into the hotel in the late afternoon.

Dinner: At a local restaurant.

Evening: At leisure.

DAY
7
Civil Rights Institute, 16th St. Church, Kelly Ingram Park
Birmingham, AL
B,L,D
Hampton Inn & Suites Birmingham-Downtown-Tutwiler

Activity note: Walking up to 2 miles throughout the day, standing during presentations for up to 30 minutes.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: With a local expert, we will visit a variety of sites aboard the motorcoach, learning about the Civil Rights Movement and its events in Birmingham. Take a field trip to the historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, bombed by Klansmen in 1963, killing four little girls. Stroll through the Kelly Ingram Park where sculptures depict the reality of the police dogs and fire hoses that were turned on demonstrators who gathered here to protest segregation laws. Visit the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute that tells the story of a people and a movement with commentary by your local study leader.

Lunch: At a local restaurant.

Afternoon: Free time or join the group leader aboard the motor coach for a visit to Vulcan Park and Museum to hear about Birmingham's industrial past and race relations. If you had rather return to the Kelly Ingram Park or Civil Rights Institute, it is only a .5 mile walk from your hotel.

Dinner: At the hotel as we continue our conversations about the emotional week we have just experienced and as we sort out and discuss the activities that we have participated in that tell the story of the Civil Rights Movement.

Evening: At leisure. Prepare for departure in the morning and arrange your transportation to the airport for the morning.

DAY
8
Departure Birmingham to Atlanta
Birmingham, AL
B

Activity note: Hotel check-out by 11:00 a.m.

Breakfast: At the hotel.

Morning: Our program concludes following breakfast. Our motor coach will depart by 7:00 am (Central Time) for Atlanta International Airport. It is approximately a 2 hour and 15 minutes, drive depending on traffic. Participants should arrange flights home at 1:00 PM (Eastern Time), or later. After dropping participants at the Atlanta airport, the motor coach will then travel to the Hyatt Place, the originating hotel, to drop anyone who may have left a car at the hotel. This concludes our program. If you are transferring to another Road Scholar program, detailed instructions are included in your Information Packet for that program. We hope you enjoy Road Scholar learning adventures and look forward to having you on rewarding programs in the future. Don’t forget to join our Facebook page and follow us on Instagram. Best wishes for all your journeys!






Important registration tip:
If you want to attend the live lecture, please do not wait until the last minute to enroll.
If you enroll after a lecture is complete, we’ll send you a recording of the event.