Fodor's Expert Review Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Historians consider Birmingham the "cradle of the civil rights movement," and this museum traces African Americans' struggle for equality back to the 1800s. A series of galleries show the stark differences between blacks' and whites' daily lives over the years. The Movement Gallery focuses on dramatic episodes of the 1955–63 civil rights movement. Located in the Civil Rights district, the museum can be part of a larger tour including Kelly Ingram Park, where large civil rights demonstrations were staged, and the16th Street Baptist Church, the site of a 1960s bombing that killed four young girls.