In 2018 it will be 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in Memphis, and the anniversary has spurred several civil rights-focused sights to open in America’s Southern USA. Foremost is the Memorial to Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, a stunning structure of suspended columns that pays homage to the nation’s 4000 documented lynching victims. King’s birthplace in Memphis is being refurbished for visitors, and the motel where he was killed – now transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum – is holding a year’s worth of poetry slams, concerts and other special events. Meanwhile, New Orleans turns 300, and it’s throwing a multi-event birthday party that’ll carouse through the year. Understand the Southern USA.

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