History
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 Civil 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]
Also in January 2021, Moon Publishing released Moon U.S. Civil Rights Trail, a travel guide by Deborah D. Douglas.[40][41][42] The guide focuses on 16 cities with sites representative of the civil rights movement and includes history lessons and interviews with activists and important figures.[42][43]
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.[44][45][46]