Long Time Coming ASU Interpretive Center Finally Opening

    The third of three Selma-to-Montgomery March interpretive centers--- the one at Alabama State University--- will open on the 55th Anniversary of the march---March 25th. But the public can get a sneak peek this weekend: Saturday from 8 -4:30, on Sunday from 8:00 - 6:00. Exhibits are still being installed.

 

Groundbreaking for the center took place in 2014.

     It was supposed to open in 2015, in time for the 50th anniversary of the march, which had drawn then-President Obama and former President George W. Bush to our area.

ASU's president Ross talks about the Center.

     The building was completed in 2017.

     The U.S. Park Service signed an agreement with ASU to operate the center in 2018. 
     It’s been  a decade since ASU won a competition to be home to the center, beating out The City of Saint Jude on Fairview Avenue, where the marchers spent the final night before continuing to the Capitol, and The Mount Zion AME Zion Church.

     The other interpretive centers are in downtown Selma, where the march began, and in Lowndes County the midpoint in the march. The National Park Service names them this way:

The Lowndes Interpretive Center
The Selma Interpretive Center

     ASU Officials say the Montgomery Interpretive center will be called: The Montgomery Interpretive Center at ASU, and will focus on ASU student involvement in the march.

     The center will be operated by the U.S. Park Service, which is hiring a dozen ASU students as paid interns to work at the center. 

      
     Floyd Myers is the superintendent of the National Park Service's Selma-to-Montgomery National Historic Trail. He joined ASU President Quinton Ross at the press conference.