The Selma Interpretive Center is located near the eastern foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, along the main route of the Selma-Montgomery March route.
From the NPS website: (
visit link)
"The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail follows Route 80 between Selma and Montgomery, AL and is marked by distinctive signs. Visitors to the Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail may visit a number of sites at the beginning of the first march in Selma, Alabama and at the end of the last march in Montgomery, Alabama and in between. Several sites along the trail are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Click here for the Brown Chapel AME Church (Selma), National Register text and photos; and the Alabama State Capitol (Montgomery), text and photos. Brown Chapel AME Church has also been designated a National Historic Landmark. The Alabama State Capitol has been documented by the National Park Service’s Historic American Buildings Survey.
For more information, visit the National Park Service Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail website or call the visitor information line at 334-877-1984. There is no fee to access the trail itself or for the interpretive center which is open daily 9:00am to 4:30pm. The trail is open year round. For more information on historic places to visit and a general overview of the trail, visit the National Park Service orientation and visitor center at the Lowndes County Interpretive Center, halfway between Selma and Montgomery on US Rt. 80.
The Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail and associated registered historic places are also featured in the National Park Service We Shall Overcome: Historic Places of the Civil Rights Movement Travel Itinerary. The trail route is also the subject of an online lesson plan, The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March: Shaking the Conscience of the Nation. The lesson plan has been produced by the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places program, which offers a series of online classroom-ready lesson plans on registered historic places. The route is also designated a National Scenic Byway/All-American Road. See the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byways Program website."
Also from the NPS: (
visit link)
"SELMA TO MONTGOMERY NATIONAL HISTORIC TRAIL
Things To Do
Things To Do
Visitors are encouraged to drive the trail route from Marion, AL to Montgomery.
Selma Interpretive Center serves as the Welcome Center to the trail located at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. The Interpretive Center offers an interpretive exhibit and bookstore. The Selma Interpretive Center opened on March 2, 2011.
While in Selma visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Street Walking Tour which includes Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, First Baptist Church, George Washington Carver Homes and wayside exhibits.
Other sites of interest in Selma include the National Voting Rights Museum & park (privately owned), Slavery & Civil War Museum, Old Depot Museum, Smitherman Museum and Edmund Pettus Bridge.
Lowndes Interpretive Center opened its doors to the public on August 26, 2006 as was the first of three planned National Park Service visitor centers along the Trail route. The Interpretive Center is located midway between Selma and Montgomery in White Hall. Once inside visitors can view a 25-minute film titled, "Never Lose Sight of Freedom", hear voices of the March, and touch and feel interactive exhibits--these are just a few of the experiences available in the Interpretive Center.
Montgomery Interpretive Center will open at a future date on the campus of Alabama State University.
While in Montgomery you can visit the Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & parsonage, Alabama State Capitol and the Southern Law Poverty Center.
Contact Selma/Dallas or Montgomery Chamber of Commerce for other recreational and historical sites."