Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana & Tennessee
June 24 – July 3, 2025 (10 days)
The Trip
Join Carleton’s Rebecca Brückmann, an Associate Professor of History specializing in African American History, on a retrospective journey of the Black Freedom Movement from Alabama, through Louisiana and Mississippi, to Tennessee.
Your journey begins in Birmingham, Alabama, where the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church shocked the nation and drew outrage that crossed racial lines. Walk across Selma’s Edmund Pettus Bridge and learn about “Bloody Sunday,” when voting rights marchers were violently confronted by law enforcement personnel. Continue into Louisiana and visit the Whitney Plantation, a museum dedicated to the history of slavery; and explore the city of New Orleans, including a visit to Congo Square, the birthplace of jazz. Your journey concludes in Memphis, Tennessee, with a visit to the Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination and today the location of the National Civil Rights Museum.
Along the way you will learn about key players in the Civil Rights Movement and visit sites associated with their lives: Dr. King, with a visit to the King Family House; Rosa Parks and her role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with a visit to her former home; and, in Selma, meet with a foot soldier from the Movement who will tell their personal story. On a privately guided tour of a section of the Mississippi Freedom Trail, you will visit the site of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market and the Tallahatchie Courthouse to learn about Emmett Till and how his death, at the young age of 14, is considered one of the catalysts for the Movement.
This program will take you through a heavy and emotional period in U.S. history, but it will also show you the resilience, strength, and joy of a people who have been fighting for equal rights in the face of adversity since their enslavement. To be a part of this experience, contact Alumni Adventures at (800) 811-7244 or email carleton@studytours.org today.
Faculty Leader
Rebecca Brückmann is an Associate Professor of History at Carleton College who specializes in African American History. She is the author of the monograph Massive Resistance and Southern Womanhood: White Women, Class, and Segregation (University of Georgia Press, 2021), which analyzes the resistance of white supremacist women against Black Freedom activism in Arkansas, Louisiana, and South Carolina from the 1940s to the 1960s. Her research on the Black Freedom Movement, Black Women’s History, the history of the Black Diaspora, and the history of white supremacy has been published in the Southern Quarterly, the South Carolina Historical Magazine, the European Journal of American Studies, and Picturing Black History.
Rebecca is excited about sharing and engaging in the rich histories of the Black South and the long Black Freedom Movement, saying “This tour not only provides access to key sites, moments, and ongoing debates of Black history in the Deep South and beyond, it also offers diverse and nuanced perspectives on Black experiences, activism, and joy.”
Prices Per Person (10 nights)
Double Occupancy (25-30 participants) $6,495
Double Occupancy (20-24 participants) $6,795
Single Supplement $345
Single room supplement will be charged when requested or required (limited availability). With fewer than 20 participants, a small group surcharge may be added.
Itinerary
Tuesday, June 24, 2025: Arrive Birmingham, ALABAMA | Welcome dinner
Wednesday, June 25: Birmingham: Walking tour | Montgomery: Legacy Museum
Thursday, June 26: Montgomery: Civil Rights Trail, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Friday, June 27: Montgomery: Freedom Monument Sculpture Park | Selma: Edmund Pettus Bridge Walk & Driving tour of Historic District with Special Guest
Saturday, June 28: Selma: National Voting Rights Museum & Institute | New Orleans, LOUISIANA
Sunday, June 29: Wallace: Whitney Plantation | New Orleans: Black History Tour
Monday, June 30: Jackson, MISSISSIPPI: Medgar Evers Home Museum, Canton Freedom House Civil Rights Museum | Greenwood: Mississippi Freedom Trail
Tuesday, July 1: Summer: Tallahatchie Courthouse | Memphis, TENNESSEE | PM at leisure
Wednesday, July 2: Memphis: National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, PM at leisure | Farewell dinner
Thursday, July 3: Fly home
Additional Information
To reserve your space using an online form, click here.
For reservations or for more information, download the detailed brochure, call 800-811-7244 or email Carleton College Alumni Adventures.