Summer Vacations: A to Z

H is for History + Fun, in the South:

Plan a "Family Fun Vacation Tour of the South" at BlackHistoryVacations.com, with focus on Memphis and Atlanta.

Your trip could include civil war battle scenes, plantation homes, civil rights sites, music performances... plus some general fun for families.

Memphis

Much history in Memphis is musical: the birth of the blues, and later, Rock and Roll.

• Visit Beale Street, which began as the center of African American commerce and became a hotbed of the blues. Beale Street is now a Historic District, with a Walk of Fame where musical notes embedded in concrete honor top musicians. See Soul of America for historical details about music and much more in Memphis.
• Memphis is celebrating 50 years of Rock and Roll this year, so expect many great performances.
• The Center for Southern Folklore has free live music at lunch, and sponsors an annual music heritage festival. It also has exhibits on the people and traditions of the Mississippi Delta, a restaurant with Southern food, and videos about Memphis and Beale Street

The other focal point in Memphis is Dr. Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in the Lorraine Motel, now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. For background, read Soul of America's Dr. King's Last Days.

Combining history with family fun is Mud Island River Park, featuring Ol' Man River, the Mississippi: a place where you can bike, hike, boat, or float (airboat, kayak, canoes...). Visit the Mississippi River Museum; walk the 5-block River Walk that recreates the lower Mississippi river. (Each 30-inch stride equals one mile.)

Other family fun in Memphis includes a children's museum, zoo, planetarium, Libertyland theme park.

• continue to p. 2, Atlanta
• back to A to Z Summer Vacations

*photo courtesy of Official Memphis site