A JOINT LEARNING EXPEDITION · DECEMBER 1–5, 2026
Alabama Roads to Freedom
Birmingham · Selma · Montgomery
The National Association for Interpretation and IATDG are putting interpreters and tour directors on the same motorcoach for five days through Alabama’s civil rights landscape — each group learning the other’s craft while the sites themselves do the teaching.
- Dates: Dec 1–5, 2026
- Cities: Birmingham, Selma, Montgomery
- Rate: $549 double occupancy
- Own room: $672 with single supplement
- Included: 4 hotel nights, all meals, admissions
- 50% refund before: Oct 31, 2026
Five days, three cities, and the people who lived the history telling it themselves.
Two professions, one motorcoach
Interpreters and tour directors do overlapping work and almost never train together. Interpreters are steeped in meaning-making — theme, relevance, provocation — and often have little exposure to the mechanics of moving a group through a multi-city itinerary. Tour directors run flawless logistics and then stand in a sanctuary where four girls were killed and have to find something true to say.
This expedition puts both groups in the same seats. You’ll practice the other field’s skills in real conditions — actual hotel check-ins, actual seat rotations, actual interpretive moments at sites that ask a great deal of a group — and debrief together through facilitated conversations along the route.
Alabama is the right classroom for it. Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery hold more of this history on the actual ground than anywhere in the country, and much of it is told by people who were there.
Learn and practice firsthand
Not lectures. Each skill is worked in the place and moment that calls for it, then unpacked as a group.
Interpretive techniques
What NAI members bring to the table
- Why interpretation matters
- Balancing preservation and access
- Adaptation and resilience
- Myth-making vs. responsible storytelling
- Cultural layering
Tour director and guide skills
What IATDG members bring to the table
- Meets and greets
- Seat rotation
- Creating a group dynamic
- Hotel check-in
- Working with a driver
The route
Highlights below. Full site descriptions and timings are on the registration page.
Tue, Dec 1 — Birmingham
Arrive and gather
Airport pickup, hotel check-in, then a mix and mingle followed by dinner with live entertainment.
Wed, Dec 2 — Birmingham
The Birmingham campaign, block by block
The motel rooms where Dr. King and Rev. Shuttlesworth planned the 1963 campaign, the church whose bombing turned national opinion, and lunch with Ms. Barbara Shores in Smithfield — once known as Dynamite Hill — whose father represented Dr. King. The day closes with Alabama’s jazz legacy at the Carver Theatre.
- A.G. Gaston Motel
- 16th Street Baptist Church
- Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
- Lunch with Ms. Barbara Shores
- Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame
Thu, Dec 3 — Birmingham → Selma → Montgomery
Iron, then the bridge
Breakfast inside the blast furnaces that built the Magic City and the labor story behind them, a stop at Barber Vintage Motorsports, then west to Selma to walk the Edmund Pettus Bridge and follow the march route through Lowndes County.
- Sloss Furnaces
- Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum
- Edmund Pettus Bridge
- Lowndes County Interpretive Center
Fri, Dec 4 — Montgomery
Where the boycott began
Dr. King’s church and the parsonage that survived a 1956 bombing, the house that sheltered Freedom Riders in 1961, and the sanctuary where thousands gathered on December 5, 1955 to launch a 381-day boycott. Dinner and entertainment, then downtown Montgomery on your own.
- Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church
- Dexter Parsonage Museum
- Harris House & driving tour
- Holt Street Baptist Church Experience
- Rosa Parks Museum
- Montgomery Square
Sat, Dec 5 — Montgomery
The Legacy sites, then home
A full morning across the Equal Justice Initiative’s campus — the museum, the memorial’s 800-plus suspended monuments, and seventeen acres of sculpture along the Alabama River — before afternoon departures.
- The Legacy Museum
- National Memorial for Peace and Justice
- Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
Cost and what it covers
$549
Per person, double occupancy
$672
With single supplement — your own room
$275
Optional extra hotel night, before or after
Included
- Four hotel nights, December 1–4
- Guided training tours and facilitated sessions
- All activities and entrance fees
- All meals throughout, including two dinners with entertainment
- Ground transportation to every site on the itinerary
- Drop-off at Birmingham airport at the end of the program
Plan separately for
- Airfare to and from Alabama
- Getting from the airport to the hotel when you arrive
- Tips for your guides and drivers — recommended, not included
- Free-time activities and incidentals
Cancellations before October 31, 2026 receive a 50% refund. Itineraries and schedules are subject to change for weather or local circumstances.
Presented by
- National Association for Interpretation — Co-host
- IATDG — International Association of Tour Directors & Guides
- Alabama Tourism — Sponsor
- Greater Birmingham CVB — Sponsor
- Experience Montgomery — Sponsor
Spots are Limited
Spots are limited. Double occupancy is $549; add the single supplement if you’d rather have your own room.
Questions
Registration asks which organization you know, and there’s a single published rate — so you don’t need to be a member of either to attend.
No. Registration asks whether you’re an interpreter, a tour director, or a tour guide, and the whole design assumes you’re strong in one area and learning the other. People new to the field attend alongside veterans.
Fly into Birmingham–Shuttlesworth (BHM) on December 1 and out of BHM on December 5. Getting from the airport to the hotel on arrival is on you, but our transportation covers everything from there — every site, all three cities — and drops you back at Birmingham airport at the end of the program.
There’s real walking — the Civil Rights District on foot, the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and seventeen acres at the sculpture park. Registration includes a field for mobility needs, and we’ll work with you.
Deliberately. Facilitated conversations are built into the route rather than saved for the end, and how to prepare a group, hold a room, and close well is a core part of what’s being taught. That’s the reason the training and the tour are the same week.
Yes — registration offers an optional extra hotel night before or after at $275 per night.
