Alabama is proof that a place can be ugly and beautiful at the same time. The landscape is breathtaking: with long stretches of soft sand, ancient mountains, and scenic rivers winding through lush forests. It’s one of the most alluring natural places on earth. Despite this undeniable beauty, Alabama has a painful history rooted in the intuition of slavery, Jim Crow, and systemic racism.

The philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” Alabama has taken this statement to heart, establishing the Alabama Civil Rights Trail to share the hard truths of the past and celebrate the people who fought for equality and made the world a better place. The Alabama Civil Rights Trail is a life-changing trip carrying you through cities, small towns, churches, and nondescript alleyways, immersing you in lessons and stories to carry with you for the rest of your life. These places on the Alabama Civil Rights Trail deserve a spot on your travel bucket list.

10 Birmingham

On September 15th, 1963, Addie Mae Collins, age 14; Cynthia Wesley, age 14; Carole Robertson, age 14; and Carol Denise McNair, age 11, stood in the bathroom at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. It was Youth Day, and the girls were excitedly chatting when a bomb shook the building. More than 20 members of the congregation were injured, and all four of the girls were killed. It was the third bombing targeting the Black community in Birmingham since a federal order demanded Alabama schools integrate 11 days earlier. The murder of four innocent girls at church shocked the world and became one of the galvanizing moments of the Civil Rights movement. Visitors today can schedule tours of the church to learn more about the bombing’s impact on the community, the Civil Rights Movement, and the nation.

Also not to be missed in Birmingham is the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, where visitors are carried on an emotional journey back to what life was like in segregated Alabama.

Related: Rediscovering Alabama: Why This State Should Be On Your Bucket List

9 Anniston

On May 14, 1961, a group of Freedom Riders pulled into the Greyhound bus station in Anniston, Alabama. The Freedom Riders' mission was to test supreme court rulings prohibiting discrimination in interstate travel. The interracial group sat together on buses headed south from Washington D.C., attempting to eat together at lunch counters, use the same bathrooms, and challenge other norms that existed in the South at that time. When they pulled into the station at Anniston, an angry mob of 50 white supremacists surrounded the bus, smashing the windows, slashing the tires, and denting the sides with pipes, chains, and bats.

Once their bus could be limped back onto the road, they were surrounded again near the city limits. A firebomb was tossed through a broken bus window, and the mob barricaded the door, trapping the Freedom Riders inside. The crowd retreated when the gas tank exploded, allowing passengers to escape the burning bus. The attackers moved in, battering them as the Freedom Riders struggled for breath on the ground. The burning bus remains one of the most harrowing images of the Civil Rights era.

In 2017, President Obama proclaimed the former bus station and Freedom Riders Park, located at the site where the bus was burned, as the Freedom Riders National Monument, a place where their bravery can be honored and remembered.

Related: Consider These Black Heritage Tours For Your Next Vacation

8 Scottsboro

In 1931, nine Black teenagers, ranging in age from 13-19, were falsely accused of raping a white woman. Charlie Weems, Ozie Powell, Clarence Norris, brothers Andrew and Leroy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Willie Roberson, Haywood Patterson, and Eugene Williams were transferred to Scottsboro to await trial.

The eight oldest boys were convicted and sentenced to death despite the fact that only four of them had even made each other’s acquaintance prior to their arrest. There was a hung jury in the case of the 13-year-old. In 1932, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the boy’s convictions, ruling that they were denied counsel, which violated their rights.

Before their second trial, one of the white women admitted she lied about being raped and testified against the defense. Despite this, in the ensuing years, the boys were caught up in a legal system that continued to convict them and sentence them to death. In 1935, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned their verdicts again, stating that the exclusion of Black citizens from the county jury pool effectively denied the boys a fair trial. Still, they continued to be tried and convicted. Today the case of the Scottsboro Boys and the two important Supreme Court rulings serve as important precedents in the Nation’s legal system as well as a symbol of how systemic racism affects the criminal justice system. The case was also reportedly one of the inspirations for Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird.

While in Scottsboro, don’t miss The Scottsboro Boys Museum, which goes beyond the story of the boys to illustrate the ways countless Black men were thrown in prison and systemically trapped in poverty in the decades following the end of institutionalized slavery.

7 Tuscaloosa

June 9th, 1964, will forever be known as Bloody Tuesday. On that day, a group of peaceful protesters in Tuscaloosa organized a march to protest segregated drinking fountains and restroom facilities in the local courthouse. Right outside the church where they started, they were attacked by an angry group of white citizens, including police officers, who tear-gassed, assaulted, and arrested the protesters. 33 protesters were hurt so badly that they were hospitalized, and 94 were arrested.

Today, The Tuscaloosa Civil Rights Trail weaves around downtown, telling the story of the horrors of Bloody Tuesday, enslaved individuals, indigenous peoples forced to leave their homes, and so much more. At the same time, the trail celebrates the people who bravely risked their lives to fight against injustice.

6 Selma

Selma was Ground Zero in the fight for voting rights in the 1960s. On March 7th, 1965, 600 protesters gathered at the Brown Chapel AME Church to march through the streets of Selma, over the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and all the way to Montgomery to demand the right to vote. When they reached the crest of the bridge, state troopers on horseback were awaiting them below. The officers moved against the unarmed marchers, attacking them with batons. 17 protesters, including a 25-year-old John Lewis, were beaten so badly they were hospitalized, and 50 more were injured. The day is now known as Bloody Sunday.

The nation was outraged at the horrific violence enacted on a non-violent protest. By the time Martin Luther King Jr. led the same march two days later, approximately 2,000 more marchers from around the country had joined their ranks. Once again, they were forced to turn back. Undeterred, a third march was organized on March 21. This time they had a military escort to protect them. When they reached the final leg in Montgomery, there were more than 25,000 marchers demanding voting rights for Black Americans.

In the end, four people associated with the march from Selma to Montgomery were killed, and countless more were injured. Their sacrifice wasn’t in vain, however. A few months later, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act. Visiting Selma is a must for anyone who wants to learn more about the struggle for Civil Rights. In addition to Brown AME Church and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, you’ll find the excellent Selma Interpretive Center, operated by the National Park Service.

5 Montgomery

On December 1, 1955, a Civil Rights activist named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white rider. She was arrested, spurring a city-wide bus boycott. A 26-year-old pastor named Martin Luther King Jr. was elected to lead the boycott. On June 5, 1956, a Montgomery federal court ruled that segregation on city buses was illegal. The city appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld the decision. After 13th months, the boycott ended, and Montgomery’s buses were finally integrated.

Today, visitors to Montgomery can visit the Dexter King Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King Jr.’s pulpit still stands. Other must-sees in Montgomery include the Freedom Rides Museum. set in a Greyhound Bus station where Freedom Riders were brutally attacked in 1961, the Rosa Parks Museum, and the Alabama State Capital, where the Selma to Montgomery March ended. Don’t miss The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. The 11,000-square foot is an immersive experience, plunging visitors into a harrowing journey across the ocean, into the lives of enslaved human beings and beyond in order to better understand the systemic inequalities that continue to affect society today.

4 Tuskegee

At Moton Field in Tuskegee, the U.S. Army Airforce conducted an experiment to see if it was possible to train Black men to fly into combat. They became the 32nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group and served in World War 2 as the first group of Black military aviators in U.S. history. At the Tuskegee Airman National Historic Site, visitors can hear the inspiring story of their fight against racism and our country’s enemies.

Tuskegee is also home to the Tuskegee History Center, which does an excellent job presenting the history of the area, including the barbaric Tuskegee Experiment, in which impoverished Black men with syphilis suffered greatly and even died when treatments were withheld while doctors studied the disease’s progression.

3 Monroeville

The tiny town of Monroeville inspired the setting for Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Her father was a white lawyer who defended two Black men accused of defending a white shopkeeper. She was greatly affected by the experience, along with other stories of racial tension and injustice in the South.

The Old Courthouse Museum in Monroeville has exhibits dedicated to Harper Lee, and her childhood friend, Truman Capote. The courthouse has been restored to the way it appeared in the 1930s. If it looks familiar, it’s because the set designer of the film version of To Kill a Mockingbird modeled the movie’s courthouse after the building in Monroeville. Every spring, a stage version of To Kill A Mockingbird is performed at the old courthouse.

2 Gee’s Bend

There were serious repercussions for Black Alabamans who participated in the Civil Rights Movement. Many lost their jobs and their ability to support their families. In rural Gee’s Bend, they also lost their connection with the outside world when the ferry connecting them to nearby Camden was closed to prevent them from registering to vote. The women of Gee’s Bend reacted by forming the Freedom Quilting Bee, a cooperative that drew upon the quilting tradition in the community to use their craft to raise money for the economically disadvantaged.

Quilting in Gee’s Bend is still a rich tradition today, and the quilts are prized all over the world as works of American artistry. Ferry service from Camden to Gee’s Bend has thankfully been restored, and the Gee’s Bend Welcome Center has regular quilting demonstrations and gorgeous quilt displays.

1 Africatown

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was abolished in 1808, but that didn’t stop a wealthy man from Mobile from waging a bet with some businessmen in the North that he could manage to smuggle a schooner full of kidnapped Africans into the country. He was successful. In 1860, the Clotilda, America’s last known slave ship, reached Mobile. The captives were moved to another boat, and the schooner was burned and sunk.

After the end of the Civil War, the survivors of the Clotilda asked to be repatriated back to Africa, but they were denied. Instead, 32 survivors of the Clotilda founded Africatown just outside of Mobile. They elected a chief, spoke their native language, and kept the traditions of their homeland. There are still proud descendants of Clotilda survivors living in Africatown today, just three miles outside downtown Mobile. The historic Old Plateau Cemetary holds the remains of formerly enslaved Africans, African Americans, and a Buffalo Soldier.

The remains of the Clotilda were discovered by journalist Ben Raines in 2019, and researchers are still working to find the best way to preserve it. Work is currently being completed on the Africatown Heritage House, which will display artifacts from and tell the story of the survivors of the Clotilda and the unique community they created.