Celebrating Black History in Alabama

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Throughout 2025, there are an abundance of Black history experiences to discover for visitors to Alabama, including history, culture, food and music.

Road Trips Throughout Alabama

To get you started, check out “Catch a Vibe” on I-65: The road trip starting in Chicago, Illinois, and ending in Mobile, Alabama, you are bound to stumble across some of the country’s greatest treasures. Travel through five states and major cities such as Chicago, Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Huntsville, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Mobile to experience history, culture, the outdoors, and food like no other.

Amtrak Passenger Train

The long-awaited Amtrak train service is expected to open spring of 2025. The train will travel twice a day from New Orleans to Mobile. So similar in history, food, and culture, it’s only natural that Mobile and New Orleans will soon be linked by Amtrak Passenger Train with four stops in Mississippi–Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, Biloxi and Pascagoula. For more info please visit www.mobile.org

Civil Rights Anniversaries

March 7, 1965: 60th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday

March 25, 1965: 60th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March

December 1, 1955: 70th Anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery bus.

December 3, 1955: Dr. MLK Jr. sworn into Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA).

December 5, 1955: 70th Anniversary for the start of the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Montgomery Bus Boycott ended 381 days later on December 21, 1956.

Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Sites

Experience American history at the three Legacy sites in Montgomery: The Legacy Museum, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, and take a boat ride to the newest addition, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

  • The Legacy Museum takes you through 400 years of American history – enslavement, to racial terrorism, to codified segregation, to mass incarceration. The critically acclaimed museum features first-person historical accounts, interactive content, and world-class art gallery.
  • The National Memorial for Peace and Justice is the nation’s first comprehensive memorial dedicated to the victims of racial terror lynchings. The outdoor memorial uses sculpture, art, and design to contextualize racial terror and its legacy today.
  • Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is built on the banks of the Alabama River and explores the lived experience of enslaved people in America. World-class sculptures animate an unforgettable journey through history that culminates in a first-of-its-kind monument honouring enslaved people in the U.S. To learn more about the EJI Legacy sites, please visit www.legacysites.eji.org

Africatown Heritage House and Clotilda

The Exhibit: More than 50 years after the United States banned participation in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the schooner Clotilda trafficked men, women and children from Benin in Africa to Mobile in 1860. It is the last known American slave ship and was scuttled to hide the evidence of the illegal activity. The ship’s remains were discovered and identified in 2019.

Africatown Heritage House opened in 2023 with multisensory exhibits and artifacts from the ship to bring life to the story of the 110 survivors, who demonstrated remarkable optimism and resilience. Visitors can also take a boat tour on the Mobile River and hear stories of the captives who sailed the same waters — but in a very different manner. Today, the National Geographic documentary Clotilda: Last American Slave Ship is out on Disney Plus, while Netflix has bought the rights to Descendant, which tells the story of the slaves’ descendants. www.clotilda.com

Harper Lee’s 99th Birthday

Celebrate Harper Lee’s 99th birthday by watching the award-winning play of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird at the courthouse in Monroeville, the town where she grew up and which doubled as the fictional Maycomb in the book. The two-act birthday celebration play is on April 26; the $135 ticket includes food, drink and a chance to meet the actors. Other performances are held at end of March and throughout April. Tickets sell out fast; tickets for 2025 are on sale now. Visitors at the courthouse museum can see exhibitions on Harper Lee and her childhood friend Truman Capote, the inspiration for Dill in the novel. There’s also an interesting self-guided walking tour around Monroeville, including the original county jail, the elementary school and Mel’s Dairy Dream, a hamburger restaurant on the site of the author’s original home. Harper Lee’s grave is marked by a simple granite stone in the town’s Hillcrest Cemetery. For more details, please visit www.visitmonroevilleal.com

America’s latest National Heritage Area

The Alabama Blackbelt is one of America’s latest National Heritage Areas which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in January 2023. The Alabama Blackbelt includes Moundville, one of America’s premier Native American sites with 29 platform mounds, Monroeville, home of To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee, and key civil rights cities of Tuskegee, Selma and Montgomery. The Alabama Blackbelt National Heritage Area joins the Muscle Shoals National Heritage Area as two places in Alabama with rich stories waiting to be written and told.

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