Alabama is a warm weather travel destination. In addition to the site of historical monuments for the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement, Alabama is a great location for folk art.
MONTGOMERY is where Rosa Parks started the first bus boycott; see the Maya Lin Civil Rights Memorial. Free entry to the Confederacy’s first “White House” as it had initially located its capital here so the Capitol Building touches on that too. Do visit the Civil Rights Memorial Center. You can see MLK’s house (the Dexter Parsonage Museum). You need to call in advance to book a tour at the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum. The Museum of Fine Arts is free.
BIRMINGHAM has another free Museum of Art. The Civil Rights Institute covers the 1950s and 1960s. Vulcan Park has great views.
ENTERPRISE – It’s the site of the Boll Weevil Monument in recognition of the demise of the cotton business and the future of peanut agriculture.
HUNTSVILLE – Visit the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. Enjoy the outdoors at the Land Trust of Northern Alabama trails.
TUSKGEGEE – At and around the Tuskgegee University, visit the George Washington Carver Museum, the Home of Booker T. Washington and Moton Field’s exhibit on the first Black military pilots.
TUSCALOOSA has a small but free Museum of Art. You can visit the Mercedes Benz US International Visitors Center but call ahead if you want to go on a factory tour. In nearby NORTHPORT, visit the Kentuck Museum for a feast of folk art.
SELMA – Visit the National Voting Rights Museum. Note that you need to make an appointment if you want to visit the nearby Museum of Slavery and Civil Rights.
FOOD – You could waste your calories on pulled pork or fried catfish or fried chicken or biscuits and gravy. Personally, I would hold out for the pecan pie. Pecans are Alabama’s state nut, if you need an excuse to indulge.
“There are gods in Alabama: Jack Daniel’s, high school quarterbacks, trucks, big tits, and also Jesus.” ― Joshilyn Jackson, Gods in Alabama
“I was born in Alabama, but I only lived there for a month before I’d done everything there was to do.” — Paula Poundstone
“This is a place where grandmothers hold babies on their laps under the stars and whisper in their ears that the lights in the sky are holes in the floor of heaven.” – Rick Bragg, Somebody Told Me: The Newspaper Stories of Rick Bragg
“There is only one unpardonable sin–deliberate cruelty. All else can be forgiven.” — Truman Capote, The Thanksgiving Visitor
People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for.” — Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
TATTOO—Journeys on My Mind by Tina Marie L. Lamb is available at Amazonand BarnesandNoble and iBooks and Audible,
Buy it. Read it. Let me know what you think. –TMLL
And prior to visiting, you may want to watch the 2014 movie, Selma, directed by Ava DuVernay.