Alabama continues to commemorate the 200th anniversary of its statehood throughout 2018 and 2019.
Created from the Mississippi Territory in 1817, the Alabama Territory became the US nation’s 22nd state on December 14, 1819.
2019’s celebration theme is Sharing our Stories. More information on Alabama Bicentennial activities and events is available at www.Alabama200.org
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in April 2018 in Montgomery, acknowledging an era of racial terror in the US. The spacious park holding the memorial includes a monument for every county in America where a racial terror lynching took place.
A few blocks away from the memorial, is the newly opened Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration.
Located a few steps away from what was once one of the most prominent slave markets in America, and from a port and rail station that trafficked thousands of enslaved black people in the mid-19th century, the new narrative museum offers ground-breaking, interactive content that takes visitors on a journey through our nation’s difficult past.
Sculpture, fine art, and technology are combined with original research and multi-media presentations to create a unique cultural experience.
Meanwhile, visitors can walk in the footsteps of Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, John Lewis and other African American activists, thanks to the U.S. Civil Rights Trail that launched on January 15, 2018.
Heritage tourists can learn about Dr King at numerous locations in Alabama including King’s first church, Dexter Avenue Baptist, where the bus boycott was organized in 1955, and its parsonage in Montgomery to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, which houses the door to King’s former jail cell.
And, with little more than 400 days until July 20, 2019, a team of Huntsville’s community leaders, helmed by Rocket Center CEO Dr Deborah Barnhart, is hard at work planning a weeklong celebration of humanity greatest technological achievement – the lunar landing of Apollo 11.
Working with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, the Rocket City is assembling an unprecedented array of media, objects, events and educational opportunities to mark the occasion.
Stand: