School Trips to Atlanta

Why visit Atlanta?

Centre for the civil rights movement

Atlanta was the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He, along with others in the city, played a key role in advancing civil rights for the USA’s black population, employing nonviolent civil disobedience as the key form of protest.

At the King Center, your students will find out more about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and teachings. You can also visit King’s birthplace, in the area of Atlanta known as ‘Sweet Auburn’, the heart of Black Atlanta.

On your school trip to Atlanta, your students will learn more about the history of the civil rights movement, from the abolition of slavery in the 1860s, to Jim Crow laws and segregation and, eventually, legislative reform in the 1960s.

Explore African-American history

As well as being an important centre for the civil rights movement, Atlanta is also the perfect place in which to learn more about African-American history, as the city has played an important role in this throughout the centuries.

Georgia was one of the Thirteen Colonies, in which slavery was established as a legal institution in 1619. And Georgia joined six other slave states in forming the Confederacy in 1861, just prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. The Confederacy was fighting for white supremacy and the expansion of slavery in the United States, rather than its abolition.

On 19th June 1865, the last Confederate slaves were freed, and this date is now celebrated as Juneteenth. However, racial segregation continued in the South with the implementation of Jim Crow laws, which were only overturned in the 1960s, with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

On your politics school trip to Atlanta, your students won’t only learn about the civil rights movement, they’ll also learn the social, historical and cultural context which resulted in the birth of the movement.

They’ll also have the opportunity to find out more about the ongoing issues affecting the African-American community in the USA.

Book with Halsbury

Take a look at our range of Atlanta school trips below, and then get in touch with one of our tour advisers to discuss your requirements.