MLK Club’s Tour: Civil Rights Landmarks When: June 21-24, 2018

Text provided by Clifford F. Buttram, Jr., MLK Club Vice President

Members and associates of the Martin Luther King (MLK), Jr. Club of Fort Wayne, Indiana recently toured the South, visiting Civil Rights museums and memorials in Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma.

In 2016, the MLK Club ventured to Washington, D.C. to visit the National Mall, Arlington Cemetery, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the Iwo Jima Memorial, and a special tour of the U.S. Capitol given by Representative Marlin Stutzman.

In 2017, 102 people visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), as well as a tour of the National Mall, a visit to the historic Amtrak station for dinner and shopping, and a tour of the U.S. Capitol through the newly renovated Visitor’s Center.

On this year’s trip, while in Memphis, the group toured the National Civil Rights Museum across from the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination, and the Stax Soul Music Museum.  In Montgomery, the group toured the new Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.

In Birmingham, the group toured Kelly Ingram Park, the setting of the iconic photographs of children and adults being sprayed with fire hoses in June 1963. The group also participated in Sunday morning service at the historic 16th Street Baptist Church, the location of the 1963 bombing that took the lives of four little girls.

The group’s annual Civil Rights trips assist the nonprofit in educating the public about important topics and events in African American history.