The Anniston Civil Rights and Heritage Trail Committee first began the Anniston Civil Rights Trail project in 2010 when conversations with local residents revealed that many people were unaware of the events that occurred in Anniston during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Additionally, many students were not educated on the events or the people who risked their lives to bring about change, as local history is currently not part of the standard school curriculum. The members of the committee concluded that the Anniston Civil Rights Trail project would be a beneficial and engaging way to document Anniston’s past, as well as detail the present. 

Today, the trail includes ten historic sites marked with brown and gold historic markers. Each marker includes information about the specific event that took place at each trail site. For instance, the West 15^th Street Historic District was once the economic and social hub of Anniston’s African American community; the Seventeenth Street Missionary Baptists Church was the home of “mass meetings” for African American Annistonians who planned and executed Anniston’s part of the Civil Rights Movement; the Greyhound Bus Station Demonstration was the site of the Greyhound bus terminal where on May 14, 1961, a bus carrying Civil Rights Activists known as “Freedom Riders” was attacked by an angry and violent mob who were protesting desegregation of public transportation facilities; and more. Digital QR codes on each marker link audiences to online mobile content. 

The Anniston Civil Rights Trail was made possible by the City of Anniston, the Spirit of Anniston, the Alabama Department of Tourism, the Alabama Historical Commission Black Heritage Council, and Jacksonville State University.