THE US CIVIL RIGHTS TRAIL DESTINATIONS RIGHT: National Civil
Rights Museum, Memphis
FAR RIGHT:
Kimpton Aertson Hotel, Nashville
SAMPLE PRODUCT
The new Hertz Road Trip Planner app includes maps and
detailed guides for The Road to Civil Rights, a 12-day, 1,110-mile journey taking in nine key civil rights stops; 12 days’ car hire from Atlanta to
New Orleans costs from £460 in September.
hertz.co.uk
Premier Holidays offers an eight- night Deep South fly-drive staying in Atlanta, Montgomery, Birmingham, Nashville,
Memphis and Jackson, with
United Airlines flights from
Heathrow and nine days’ fully- inclusive car hire, from £1,499 in November.
trade.premier
holidays.co.uk
w NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE Nashville’s civil rights history is overshadowed by its honky-tonk bars, yet it was here that the 1960 lunch counter sit-ins gathered momentum. By flooding locations including Woolworth on 5th – now a food and music venue – students pressured the mayor to order desegregation of counters and continued to lobby for integrated public services until the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The Civil Rights Room in elegant
Nashville Public Library has a ‘lunch counter’ where visitors can learn about the non-violent protests, while photos show children passing angry mobs to enter previously segregated schools. Where to stay: Chic new Kimpton Aertson Hotel is steps from lively Music Row and offers a daily complimentary wine hour by the fireplace in its art-filled lounge. Doubles from £190.
w MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE Music is the heart of this city, with blues fans flocking to the bars of Beale Street and Elvis Presley devotees
The Civil Rights Room in Nashville Public Library has a ‘lunch counter’ where you can learn about the non-violent protests
making the pilgrimage to Sun Studios and Graceland.
On April 4, 1968, Memphis gained
attention for being the place where another King – Martin Luther King Jr – was assassinated, shot at the Lorraine Motel. The building now houses the National Civil Rights Museum, with sweeping exhibits tracing the movement from slavery to King’s legacy. Suggest a tour of the Slave Haven Museum at the Burkle Estate, part of the Underground Railroad that helped people flee slavery. Director Elaine Lee Turner is one of Memphis’s most
w JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI The country’s first state-funded museum dedicated to civil rights opened in December 2017 and casts an unflinching eye on Mississippi’s most shameful history. Exhibits at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum include the doors of Bryant Grocery, where 14-year-old Emmett Till was accused of wolf-whistling a white shopkeeper in August 1955. His brutal murder and torture shocked the world and galvanised the civil rights movement. Also on display is the rifle used to
LEFT: Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
murder Medgar Evers, a civil rights leader, outside his Jackson home. The ranch-style building is now a museum offering tours by appointment. Evers had an office above the Big Apple Inn on Farish Street and held meetings in the hole-in-the-wall joint. Its menu of smokes and pig ear sandwiches hasn’t changed since 1939. Where to stay: The thickly-carpeted hallways and grand staircases of Fairview Inn lead to huge rooms with four-poster beds, fireplaces and whirlpool baths. Doubles, from £150, include a hearty breakfast.
3 May 2018
travelweekly.co.uk 47
notorious criminals. She and her six sisters were detained 17 times for participating in marches and sit-ins in the 1950s and 60s, making theirs the city’s most-arrested family. The Stax Museum tells a different
story, of a recording studio that launched the careers of Otis Redding and Isaac Hayes, and of a place where musicians paid no heed to segregation. Where to stay: Stylish Hotel Napoleon is close to the music bars and clubs of Beale Street, home of the Delta Blues. Doubles from £120.
PICTURES: ANDREA ZUCKER PHOTOGRAPHY; TOM BECK
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