The Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church is an iconic place in Civil Rights history. Located in downtown Montgomery, it was the site of many mass meetings and the home church of Martin Luther King, Jr. The Southern Poverty Law Center, located only a block away, is a non-profit organization that works for tolerance and equality issues through a variety of programs, including legal services, educational programs, and projects that support law enforcement.

All things donít go as planned, and this project was no different. Due to an unfortunate misunderstanding, the students who came to tour Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church on April 16, 2005, were met with closed doors and a note reading ěNo Tours Today or Tomorrow.î Determined to make the best of it, students read and talked about the historical information outside the church, then walked up the hill to the nearby SPLC Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin. The marker outside the church explains the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who led it in many ways. The Memorial nearby pays homage to those who died fighting for equal rights. Though it was not the ending we had hoped for, it may be a fitting summation.