For grandchildren awaiting the inauguration of Barak Obama as U.S. president, there is no better time for you to tell them about the dramatic 1960s fight for U.S. civil rights.
Start by taking them to the places where the struggle for equal rights played out in tragedy and triumph. Each of these sites tells a story, one that you can share with your grandchildren. Use your visit to help them understand that courageous people of all colors working together won the rights we take for granted today
Rosa Parks Museum and Library, Montgomery, Ala.
Here, grandchildren can see firsthand how degrading life was for blacks in the Jim Crow era. Rosa Parks was a 42-year-old African American seamstress whose single act of civil disobedience in 1955 — refusing to yield her seat on a public bus to a white man — was a pivotal event in the fight for civil rights. It sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott organized under Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In this interpretive museum, you can see a bus like the one Rosa Parks rode, along with film clips of her arrest and exhibits designed to spark thoughtful conversation.
Central High School, Little Rock, Ark.
This is where, on September 23, 1957, nine black teenagers faced angry mobs and put the Supreme Court's historic Brown v. Board of Education decision to the test. While you can't visit the school — it's still in use — you can tour the interactive Visitor Center across the street. Historic video footage and interviews with the Little Rock Nine let you see the faces in the mob, feel the terror the teens must have felt, and hear each of their stories. An illustrated activity workbook, which you can download from the website, leads children through events using pictures, puzzles, quizzes and the like. Mail in the completed workbook, and your grandchild is named a Junior Ranger.
Old Town Bistro/McCrory's, Rock Hill, S.C.
Eat a burger at the original lunch counter from McCrory's at the Old Town Bistro in Rock Hill, S.C. On January 31, 1961, nine African-American college students sat down at the dime store's "whites only" lunch counter, and refused to leave. Dubbed the "Friendship Nine," they were the first to use the "jail, no bail" technique and served their 30-day sentences at the York County Prison Farm.
Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Birmingham, Ala.
You can attend a service at this Baptist church, where a Ku Klux Klan bomb killed four girls, ages 11 to 14, on Sunday morning, September 15, 1963. This brutal act rocked the nation and galvanized the civil rights movement. Downstairs, there's an area dedicated to the young victims. Kelly Ingram Park, across the street from the church, was the site of many rallies where protesters were met with police dogs and fire hoses.
Brown Chapel and Edmund Pettus Bridge, Selma, Ala.
The modest AME Chapel and Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River played a pivotal role in the Selma-to-Montgomery marches, which led to passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. When marchers from the church reached the bridge six blocks away, mounted troopers confronted them with tear gas and bullwhips — in an event dubbed "Bloody Sunday."
The National Civil Rights Museum, Memphis, Tenn.
Built around the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, this compelling museum includes profiles of notable African American freed slaves and abolitionists. Other galleries are devoted to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, freedom riders, and the life and death of Dr. King. The recreation of his motel room as he would have left it in 1968 adds a chilling note of realism.
The Albany Civil Rights Institute, Mount Zion Baptist Church, Albany, Ga.
This beautiful state-of-the-art museum narrates the turbulent times on a local, regional, and national level, told through everyday citizen participation, oral histories and dynamic exhibits. Hear the songs of the civil rights era performed by The Freedom Singers on the second Saturday of each month. [Ed. note: At press time, the Institute is currently closed due to renovations.]
More Sites to See
In Chicago, see the house at 3624 S. Martin Luther King Drive which was home to Ida B. Wells-Barnett, who, in 1884, refused to sit in a segregated train car. She sued the railroad and won, but the decision was overturned by a higher court. (Not open to the public.)
In Boston, you can see the Dorchester home (97 Sawyer Ave.) of William Monroe Trotter, who, along with W.E.B. Du Bois, founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP) in 1909. (Not open to public.)
In New York City, you can walk your grandchildren to 555 Edgecombe Avenue where Paul Robeson, a civil rights activist, actor, singer, lawyer, athlete, and scholar lived from 1939 to 1941. (Not open to public.)
In Washington D.C., sit in the imposing courtroom where NAACP lawyer Thurgood Marshall argued that school segregation was unconstitutional. In 1954, the Supreme Court agreed. In 1967, Marshall, grandson of a slave, joined the Court. Also in D.C., stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial honoring the signer of the Emancipation Proclamation, and recite from Dr. King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. Or sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," as Marian Anderson did in 1939 when she was refused permission to perform in Constitution Hall.
Take your grandchildren on a drive through the Texas Ranch of President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1968, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Related Information
Explore some of the Voices of Civil Rights, stories of ordinary people, many your contemporaries, in extraordinary times.
Find more Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement.
Partners Against Hate offers excellent tips on discussing bias and prejudice with your grandchildren.
Read our story on the African-American Grandparenting Experience.
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