My husband and I recently went to Alabama for a civil rights trip -- Birmingham, Selma, and Montgomery. We were on the fence whether to do a tour in Birmingham or see sites on our own. Don't overthink it -- just book this tour! You'll be so glad you did.
Without the tour, we would not have gotten the insights we did into Birmingham's early communist movements, the history of each home on "Dynamite hill" that led to the "Bombingham" moniker, the 18th street boundary that marked the black versus white sections of town, and the incredible activism of Fred Shuttlesworth. It was so meaningful to learn from a local who loves his city and wants it to grapple honestly with its past. He left us with a sense of the struggle -- how many people had to strive on so many fronts to achieve lasting change. This is easily the best tour my husband and I have taken, and we travel a lot. I wish every American city had something like it.
In terms of logistics, we were 2 people out of a tour group of 7. Mike picked us up from our hotel in the morning. We ended about 3.5 hours later right outside the 16th Street Baptist Church and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. So after a quick lunch, we saw those two sites before heading south to Selma.