The National Park Service will now have oversight of a downtown section of Birmingham, Alabama " a focal point of civil rights struggles in 1963 against harsh enforcement of laws mandating racial segregation. The Park Service separately announced grants totaling more than $500,000 benefit the area, part of $7.5 million in funding for civil rights sites nationwide. The Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument will include the now-abandoned A.G. Gaston Motel, where the Rev. The city-owned Civil Rights Institute and park already draw thousands of visitors annually, and 16th Street Baptist is both a civil rights landmark and the home of an active congregation. Local leaders and tourism officials hope that even more visitors will show up once the site has National Park Service employees to greet visitors and explain the sites.

Source: New Zealand Herald January 12, 2017 23:30 UTC