Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Bus Tour Set for November

The Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Bus Tour is set to take its sixth journey to significant civil rights sites across the southern United States this November. The week-long tour will take place from November 11 to 15, visiting locations in Memphis, Tennessee, and Birmingham, Montgomery, and Selma, Alabama. These sites are known for their historical importance in the struggle for civil rights.

Participants will have the chance to visit museums in these cities, as well as the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, the site of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. In Birmingham, the tour will stop at the 16th Street Baptist Church and Kelly Ingram Park, both pivotal to the civil rights movement. Additionally, the tour will include the Equal Justice Initiative‘s Lynching Memorial in Montgomery and the Edmund Pettus Bridge and Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma.

The cost of the tour is $450 per person, encompassing travel, hotel accommodations, and museum admissions, though meals are not included. The tour offers an immersive historical experience for civil rights enthusiasts and learners.

Interested individuals can obtain more information by contacting Nancy at the Waterloo Human Rights office at (319) 291-4441.

The tour comes amidst reflections on the interconnectedness of the civil rights struggles in the United States and the end of colonialism in Africa during the mid-20th century. In 1957, Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to Ghana to attend its independence ceremonies, an experience that profoundly influenced his perspective on the global fight for freedom.

Ghana remains an important destination for visitors interested in civil rights history, with sites such as Cape Coast Castle offering solemn reminders of the transatlantic slave trade.