Photo: Historic American Buildings Survey, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

MuseumsHistory BuffRainy-Day Pick

Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Walk through self-guided galleries that trace the Birmingham Campaign and the wider American civil rights movement.

520 16th St N · Birmingham, AL

About Birmingham Civil Rights Institute

Opened in November 1992 in Birmingham's Civil Rights District, the institute leads you on a self-guided walk through multimedia galleries on African-American life and the civil rights struggle, with a focus on the 1963 Birmingham Campaign. The Oral History Project adds the voices of people who took part. The Congressional Gold Medal awarded to the four girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was given to the institute, and traveling exhibitions rotate through.

#civil rights museum
#history museum
#civil rights district
#birmingham campaign

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What's around here?

The closest stops to Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, ordered by straight-line distance. A few more like it, plus some different kinds of fun so you can build a full day.

Sightseeing
Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
No admission fee
A National Park Service monument in downtown Birmingham that preserves sites from the 1963 campaign against segregation.
Transit: reachable by public transit
Right next doorSwitch it up: Sightseeing
Sightseeing
Iconic
16th Street Baptist Church
Under $25
Tour the 1911 church where a 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing killed four girls, a landmark of the civil rights era.
Transit: reachable by public transit
Right next doorSwitch it up: Sightseeing
Museums
Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
Check prices
A Birmingham museum and organization that preserves and teaches the history of jazz in Alabama.
Transit: reachable by public transit
Steps awayMore like this
Museums
McWane Science Center
Under $25
A hands-on science museum in downtown Birmingham with exhibits, an aquarium area, and a dome theater.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.4 mi awayMore like this
Museums
Birmingham Museum of Art
No admission fee
Art museum in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, with general admission at no charge.
Transit: reachable by public transit
0.5 mi awayMore like this
Sightseeing
History Buff
Sloss Furnaces
No admission fee
Walk among the blast furnaces and machinery of a Birmingham pig iron plant that ran from 1882 to 1971.
Transit: reachable by public transit
1.4 mi awaySwitch it up: Sightseeing