National Park Service Will Build a Tourist Center on the Campus of Alabama State University

The National Park Service has announced that a new center will be built on the campus of Alabama State University that will serve as a clearinghouse on the 1965 voting rights protests and marches for tourists who travel the 54-mile Selma to Montgomery National Historic Trail. The trail was established by Congress in 1996.

Some civil rights leaders in Montgomery were dismayed by the decision because the famed Montgomery to Selma march did not pass through the ASU campus.

The new center, scheduled to open by the 50th anniversary of the 1965 march, is estimated to cost $12.6 million. The university has pledged to raise some of the money needed to construct the center.

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