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According to a recent media release, the National Park Service (NPS) will open the visitor centers along the Selma to Montgomery Historic Trail six days a week, Monday – Saturday starting on Jan. 29. 

This includes the Lowndes Interpretive Center located on U.S. Highway 80 West running through White Hall, as well as the Montgomery Interpretive Center and the Selma Interpretive Center, which is currently closed for construction.

Shirley Baxter, an NPS supervisory Park Ranger, said that she is looking forward to the change in the center’s hours. 

“We’re expanding our hours so that we get more opportunities for visitors to come to the site. We have the opportunity here to tell these stories to people that might not learn about it any other way,” Baxter said.

The visitor center hours are from 9 am – 4:30 pm and the site’s facilities include exhibits, restrooms, an information desk, and a bookstore. 

Among the exhibits, the center offers interactive multimedia elements including photos, news footage, and interviews from civil rights activists who participated in the march from Selma to Montgomery. It also shows videos that give a background of the march as well as the history along with a “Tent City” replica with an explanation of what happened there. 

Along with these exhibits, the center also offers ranger lead programs on subjects such as the Voting Rights Movement. 

Baxter described the center’s role in emphasizing Lowndes County’s part in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Lowndes County has an amazing, diverse history and was so involved in the Civil Rights Movement and the Voting Rights Movement,” Baxter said. “This just gives us an opportunity to share that information and tell Lowndes County’s story because sometimes it gets skipped over since people think mostly of Selma and Montgomery. Lowndes County was just as involved and impactful to the movement as any other area so that gives us a chance to share that.”

For more information, visit the parks’ websites at www.nps.gov/semo or @SelmaToMontgomeryNationalHistoricTrail on Facebook.