10 Civil Rights Sites to visit as Black History Month closes


Thursday, February 27, 2020

Black History Month comes to a close. Here are ten sites recommended by Vernon Burton, a history professor at Clemson University, one of the nation’s top public research universities and South Carolina’s second-largest university.



Black History Month serves as a reminder for many to dig deeper into African American history and its profound significance for how we understand the past, present and future in the United States. This month we have highlighted why Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have always been and continue to be important. We have also highlighted how several colleges and universities have decided to engage in slavery reparations. 

The struggle for civil rights can be remembered in historical sites all over the nation. “[These sites] are where ordinary Americans changed the laws in this country with civil disobedience. I would call these places hallowed ground,” shares Vernon Burton, an emeritus history professor at South Carolina’s Clemson University. Burton has shared ten historically notable, but sometimes overlooked sites, with USA TODAY. Let’s take a look at them!


(1) Benjamin Mays Historic Site

Greenwood, South Carolina

If it were not for Benjamin Mays, the world may have never known Martin Luther King Jr. Mays, a Baptist preacher, was the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta, when King enrolled at just fifteen years old. Mays was King’s mentor, and later gave the eulogy at his funeral.

“He’s an unsung hero. He was the godfather of the civil rights movement,” shares Burton.


(2) Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site

Topeka, Kansas

The 1954 U.S. Supreme court ruling overturned school segregation takes its name from a lawsuit about poor conditions at the former African American elementary school. “[This place] is a symbol of change in America. It may be more important than any other case.” The site explores the court ruling and dives deep into the clashes that followed the monumental decision. 


(3) Southern Tenant Farmers Museum

Tyronza, Arkansas

This is a museum that focuses on the struggle of poor black and white tenant farmers who worked together to demand fair treatment and wages from their landlords. As demonstrated by this site’s particular history, civil rights battles weren’t limited to cities and at schools. In the rural South, sharecroppers and tenant farmers, who lived in appalling conditions, struggled for this fair treatment. The museum explores the farm labor movement. 


(4) International Civil Rights Center and Museum

Greensboro, North Carolina

At this site, visitors can connect directly to history by taking a seat at the original lunch counter where four African American college students refused to leave until they could order a cup of coffee and doughnut. The sit-in continued for months before the store finally relented.

“It set off what we think of as the student movement. They’ve done a good job of presenting it in Greensboro,” says Burton. 


(5) Mississippi Civil Rights Museum 

Jackson, Mississippi

This Civil Rights Museum is located in the Deep South, which was the front line in the struggle for equality. This museum explores some of the most important moments in black history, including the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, the assassination of leader Medgar Evers, and the murder of three civil rights workers during the “Freedom Summer” of 1964. “It is one of the best of all of the civil rights museums. It will introduce you to incredible stories,” says Burton. 


(6) The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center

New York

This site features exhibits and programming and is located in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. It celebrates and memorializes the rights leader who helped popularize the Black Power movement. In 1965, Malcolm X, a Muslim minister, was assassinated in the Audubon Ballroom. The ballroom now has a mural that depicts his life, a statue and interactive displays.


(7) Albany Civil Rights Institute

Albany, Georgia

Civil rights protestors were always inspired by music. Music buoyed them during confrontations and even when they were locked up in jail. Visitors can hear these songs during monthly concerts led by one of the original Freedom Singers, a group of female performers who found international fame. 

Burton says, “You can see and hear why music was so important.”


(8) The Scottsboro Boys Museum and Cultural Center

Scottsboro, Alabama

In 1931, nine African American boys were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train. This case actually inspired Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird. “It really put the United States on trial. It publicized the injustice and how the legal system worked in the South for African Americans,” Burton says.


(9) The National Great Blacks in Wax 

Baltimore

This museum is the Madam Tussaud’s of African-American history. It features both historical and contemporary figures. The museum dives into African American history, ranging from the horrors of the slave ships that traversed the Middle Passage to get to America to inspiring stories of the Underground Railroad to more recent civil rights struggles. 


(10) Green McAdoo Cultural Center

Clinton, Tennessee

Clinton High School in Tennessee became one of the first in the South to integrate. This museum helps tell the story of the struggles of the 12 students who faced mobs and threats of violence when they began to attend the school. 


These sites, recommended by Clemson University’s history professor Vernon Burton, are only ten of hundreds of thousands of sites in the states where anyone can visit to learn more about African-American history. Are you fascinated by history? Are you interested in studying African-American history and culture? Several of the top colleges and best universities in the U.S. offer bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and even doctoral degrees (PhD) in history or African-American studies.

There are other bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, and doctoral degrees (PhD) that you may want to look into if you care about exploring the significance of social, political, economic, and cultural history for the past, present and future. You may want to consider a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or doctoral degree (PhD) in history. You may want to consider a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, or doctoral degree (PhD) in law and legal studies. You may want to consider a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, and even doctoral degrees (PhD) in language culture studies. 




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