Civil Rights trail keeps Tuscaloosa history alive

Two-Ways

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit nearly every industry in Alabama. One of the hardest hit appears to be tourism. That includes attractions connected to Alabama’s civil rights history, like Tuscaloosa’s Civil Rights History Trail. The pandemic slowed down these tours in the Druid City barely a year after they began. Now, historic sites like bloody Tuesday and the Stand In the Schoolhouse door are seeing visitors again. Willie Wells was a foot soldier in the Tuscaloosa Civil Rights movement in 1964. She is now the vice president of the Tuscaloosa Civil Rights History Foundation. “I was born into a segregated society. I attended segregated elementary school and segregated high school…as well as a segregated college, Stillman College,” she said. She recalls stores in Tuscaloosa with no black clerks or cashiers, no dressing rooms, and “separate but equal” water fountains around Tuscaloosa. “And that was what it was for the Blacks. We were all woven into the same cloth," she said. "It was no