Tourism Cares is partnering with Travel South USA to raise funds for the Birmingham Civil Rights Heritage Trail.
The trail documents the events of the civil rights movement in Alabama in the 1960s. There are signs and displays at various sites of historic significance around Birmingham.
The $1 million project is partially completed.
"The March to Government" route opened in February. It traces the footsteps of the marchers protesting Birmingham’s segregated city code.
"The March to Retail" includes 22 signs that chronicle blacks gaining access to restaurants, department stores, buses and other places of business.
A third route commemorates 35 sites downtown where strategic planning for the civil rights movement occurred, including the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, Sardis Baptist Church, the Gaston Motel, Phillips High School, City Hall and the Masonic Temple.
Over the next two years, four more districts will be added with multimedia components.
Travel South USA and Tourism Cares will raise funds as part of the Travel South Gives Back campaign by selling Tourism Cares wristbands on site at the 2010 Travel South Showcase in Birmingham and at www.tourismcares.org.
Travel South USA and Tourism Cares each will match all donations up to $5,000.
Travel South USA is the marketing alliance and destination-marketing organization for the southern U.S.. Tourism Cares is a nonprofit that awards grants to cultural, historical and natural sites worldwide.
