Travel departments within The New York Times and the Smithsonian Institute are marketing escorted tours to civil rights landmarks in Birmingham, Montgomery, Selma and Tuskegee during 2021, Alabama state tourism director Lee Sentell announced on Wednesday in a press release.
The release advised that groups will begin arriving as early as March with more tours in the fall.
Each tour is scheduled for six days. The cost for the Smithsonian’s itinerary begins at $4,795, while the Times’ trip starts at $5,195, with the cost covering hotel accommodations, most meals and air transfers.
Both tours will reportedly trace the steps of the civil rights movement through the 16th Street Baptist Church, bombed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963, killing four young Black girls; and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, where civil rights marchers were brutally beaten back by state and local police. Itineraries immerse guests in the history predating the civil rights movement with visits to the Legacy Museum, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, the Tuskegee Airmen Historic Site and Tuskegee University, Sentell said.
The NYT wrote that “the collective suppression of and struggle for civil rights reverberated across the United States in the 1950s and 1960s, but its loudest chorus was in the American South. With expert guidance from The New York Times, explore Alabama to witness the sites and hear the stories of those who fought and died for equal rights. Even decades on, the echoes are still heard.”
“The civil rights movement is an integral part of American history, and The New York Times was reporting and photographing in the thick of it. Even today, the country wrestles with what it means to be equal. Alabama in many ways represents the epicenter, with names like Rosa Parks, Selma, George Wallace and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. occupying places in history along with the firebombings and protests,” according to the newspaper’s promotional material.
The Times’ trip also features a private discussion with Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Gov. George Wallace (D-AL).
Sentell added that the Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium assisted the Smithsonian in planning its trip. Most of the sites are featured on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail that the Alabama Tourism Department organized in 2017.
Additionally, National Geographic Traveler magazine encourages independent travel to the Yellowhammer State as “the ultimate Southern adventure.” A 12-page story published in 2019 was headlined “National history and family heritage connect on an Alabama road trip to sites on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail.”
The International Tourism and Travel Awards in London in 2019 awarded the Best Destination Marketing Campaign Award to the Alabama Tourism Department and Birmingham ad agency Luckie and Company for their Civil Rights Trail campaign, Sentell also noted.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
