Walking Tour – Civil Rights History

3rd Saturday of the month – April-November

Durham Farmers’ Market
10:00 am
90 minutes

This exciting tour focuses on many of the sites in downtown Durham that were important during the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 60s.

The Royal Ice Cream strikers pray before going to court. (North Carolina Collection)

Sites visited include the Durham County Courthouse, the Arts Center (originally Durham High School and later City Hall), and the Kress and Woolworth buildings, sites of sit-in protests. Learn about the contributions of ordinary Durham residents to the struggle for equality as well as local leaders like Floyd McKissick and national figures like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who brought America’s attention to the campaign for civil rights in the Bull City.

“We need not be historians to understand the struggle for equality in Durham and how it played out as the nation confronted the same problems, although on a much larger scale.” – Dr. John Hope Franklin, Honorary Chairman of the tour organizing committee