Some civil rights sites at risk of being lost to history
By RUSSELL CONTRERAS, Associated Press
Published: September 1, 2016, 10:12am
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FILE - This Oct. 17, 2015, file photo, shows the entrance to the University of Alabama's Foster Auditorium, where Gov. George Wallace once stood at the entrance to prevent two black students from entering. Advocates say Alabama officials are doing a good job at preserving sites links to civil rights. From a Civil War battlefield involving Hispanic Union soldiers to birthplaces of well-known civil rights leaders, some other sites linked to key moments of the nation's civil rights are overlooked, neglected and at-risk of being forgotten. They are in danger of being lost to history even amid dramatic demographic shifts that could make the nation majority-minority by mid-century. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)Photo Gallery
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A once-thriving all-black settlement in the New Mexico desert is a ghost town that rarely appears on maps. Tour buses pass but never stop at a Houston building where Latino activists planned civil rights events. Motels that welcomed minority motorists along 1950s Route 66 sit abandoned.
From a Civil War battlefield where Hispanic Union soldiers fought to birthplaces of civil rights leaders, sites linked to the nation’s struggle for racial equality are overlooked, neglected and absent from travel guides.
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