If you plan to tour the U.S. Civil Rights Trail with your group this year, be sure to mark these dates on your calendar.
Dred Scott Case 180th Anniversary
St. Louis
More than a century before the tumultuous Civil Rights Movement began in the United States, an enslaved man named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, filed a federal lawsuit for their freedom in 1846. Though the U.S. Supreme Court eventually ruled against the Scotts, thus upholding the institution of slavery, the Scott case was a lightning rod of attention that helped catalyze and energize the abolitionist movement.
Much of the litigation in the Scott case took place at the St. Louis Circuit Court, and the trial’s venue, the Old Courthouse, is now preserved as part of Gateway Arch National Park. In 2026, the park will commemorate the 180th anniversary of the lawsuit’s filing. In anticipation of that anniversary, the Old Courthouse is undergoing a $24.5 million renovation. When work is complete this summer, the museum will feature numerous new exhibits focusing on the Scotts, their struggle and Missouri’s Black history.
Robert Russa Moton High School 85th Anniversary
Farmville, Virginia
A number of Civil Rights Movement leaders became nationally known figures. But the effort wouldn’t have succeeded without the contributions of countless thousands of lesser known activists — including students. Many historians trace the beginning of student activism in the Civil Rights Movement to Robert Russa Moton High School in Farmville, West Virginia. It was at this all-Black school that, in 1951, a group of students staged a walk-out to protest the overcrowding and the subpar facilities in which they had been forced by segregation. The students’ walk-out and strike led to a lawsuit, which was eventually merged into the Brown v. Board of Education decision that made school segregation illegal.
Today, that school is preserved as the Robert Russa Moton Museum, which tells the story of the students, their walkout and the impact it made nationwide. In late 2024, the museum and community celebrated the 85th anniversary of the school building, which was constructed in 1939.
Medgar Evers’ 100th Birthday
Jackson, Mississippi
Medgar Evers, a Mississippi civil rights activist, was born in 1925, and after years of work with the NAACP and other organizations, was murdered at his home in Jackson in 1963. Evers’ death brought new attention to the cause of civil rights in the South, and Evers came to be considered a hero of the movement.
In 2025, numerous Mississippi organizations are celebrating Evers’ 100th birthday with a yearlong series of events and commemorations. The kickoff took place at the Mississippi State Capitol in Jackson on January 12. The Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument and the Medgar and Myrlie Evers Institute in Jackson will commemorate Evers’ actual birthday on July 2. Groups can learn more about Evers’ life and his impact on the Civil Rights Movement by visiting the national monument, which preserves the family home in which Evers was killed. A museum at the site features exhibits telling Evers’ story.
Texas and Pacific Railroad Depot
Natchitoches, Louisiana
The Louisiana Civil Rights Trail unveiled its 13th marker last fall in Natchitoches with a ceremony at the historic Texas and Pacific Railroad Depot.
Constructed in 1927 in the Italianate and Spanish Revival architectural styles, the depot is one of the state’s last remaining examples of a facility once segregated for Black and white passengers. It was a conduit for the Great Migration, as 6 million African Americans migrated from rural communities in the South to larger cities in the North and West. During Jim Crow and the early Civil Rights Movement, migration allowed for better economic opportunities, access to better education and a departure point for military service. It was also the departure and arrival point for local and national civil rights leaders who worked on voting and civil rights issues in Natchitoches Parish.
The depot remained operational for passenger service until 1969. It is now part of the Cane River Creole National Historical Park, and having recently undergone a renovation, it will house exhibits and firsthand accounts from the period of segregation and the Civil Rights Movement, part of a more significant effort to magnify the African American experience in Louisiana’s Cane River region.
