It was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who said “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” In the fight for racial equality in America, there were many places around the country that served as significant meeting places for the movement, backdrops for stirring speeches and sermons, and battlegrounds for non-violent protest — many of which now memorialize and recount the struggle. These are quintessential spots that every Amercian should try to visit at least once in their lifetime.
Listed below are 15 historic sites in Washington D.C. and across the South, representing a few of the many important markers the Civil Rights Movement met along the way to justice.