A.G. Gaston Motel

Headquarters to the 1963 desegregation campaign in Birmingham, The A.G. Gaston Motel stands today as a testament to the determination of African Americans in building a better future for themselves in the Jim Crow South.

• A red-brown brick midcentury building composed of a two-story L-shaped corridors that housed visitor accommodations, and a one-story wing fronting Fifth Avenue that housed a lobby, coffee shop, and porte cochere. The construction drawings for the motel depict 29 guest rooms, each room featuring high-end furnishings.

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, part of the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, is a cultural and educational research center that promotes a comprehensive understanding for the significance of civil rights developments in Birmingham. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2017, BCRI reaches more than 150,000 individuals each year though award-winning programs and services.

Kelly Ingram Park

During the first week of May 1963, Birmingham, Alabama police and firemen attacked civil rights demonstrators, many of whom were children, in the streets bordering this park. The violence raised a nationwide public outcry, hastening integration in America's most segregated city.

• The park is 4 acres. Bounded by 16th and 17th Streets and 5th and 6th Avenues North, the park is bordered by the 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Many sculptures and waysides are scattered along the walking paths of Kelly Ingram Park, with information about the desegregation efforts in Birmingham during 1963.

Sixteenth Street Baptist Church

On Sunday morning, September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls. This murderous act shocked the nation and galvanized the civil rights movement.

• The present building is red brick built in a Romanesque and Byzantine design by the prominent Black architect Wallace Rayfield. In addition to the main sanctuary, the building houses a basement auditorium, used for meetings and lectures, and several ancillary rooms used for Sunday school and smaller groups. It is on the corner of two streets.

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Founded in 1869, St. Paul is one of the oldest African American churches in Birmingham, Alabama. Like many churches in the area, it played a critical role in spurring desegregation efforts in in Birmingham and the Jim Crow South.

• The red-brick church was built in 1905. It is located right alongside the road.

The Historic Bethel Baptist Church

Led by the fiery Revered Fred L. Shuttlesworth, The Historic Bethel Baptist Church was the epicenter of non-violent desegregation efforts in Birmingham, AL during the tumultuous 1950s and 1960s.

• The church was built in 1926, and is an architecturally eclectic mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles. The guard house and parsonage next to the church, and are ranch-style houses; the parsonage was built in 1957 as a replacement for the previous parsonage, which had stood next to the church and was destroyed by a bomb in 1956.

The Masonic Temple Building

Known as the “Black skyscraper,” the Colored Masonic Temple stood as testament to the resilience of African Americans in one of America's most segregated cities - Birmingham, AL. Despite Jim Crow policies that hobbled Black progress, the proliferation of offices in this building for African American doctors, attorneys, dentists, and civil rights activists demonstrated their unflinching character and pursuit of a better life.

• The Colored Masonic Temple (now officially the Masonic Temple Building) is an 8-story Renaissance-Revival style building made of brick and limestone located at 1630 4th Avenue North, on the corner of a bustling district in Birmingham's central downtown.

A.G. Gaston Motel

• A.G. Gaston Motel
• The A.G. Gaston Motel served as the headquarters for the Birmingham campaign. In April through May of1963 civil rights leaders, including Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., took up residence at the motel where they strategized and made critical decisions about the non-violent campaign that targeted Birmingham’s segregation laws and practices. Several key events of the campaign publicly unfolded at the property.