Illuminating the struggle for civil rights: to those who ask, what was it like? One Southern state answers: see for yourself.

• Author: Desantis, John

A tourist brochure describing the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which crosses the Alabama River between Selma and Montgomery, says "civil rights marchers and law enforcement personnel met here in confrontation. Sang Pham, 14, a student at Southside Family School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is not happy about the wording.

"Not at all," says Pham, who knows a thing or two about the March 7, 1965, event that came to be known as Bloody Sunday. "That was not a `confrontation.' The police put violence on the marchers and went after them. `Confrontation' is not enough. All the marchers did was march over the bridge and pray."

Asked how he can be so certain, Pham replies, "I spoke to the woman who was there."

In a dramatic turnaround, states like Alabama that once hoped people would just forget the painful struggle for civil rights are making it easier to learn about the movement at the actual places where history was made, from the people who were there.

NO MORE RUNNING FROM HISTORY

"We are no longer running from our history, we are embracing it," says Frances Smiley, assistant director of the Alabama Bureau of Tourism and Travel. "We want to show people what really happened, take them to historic sites, and enable them to meet people who were part of the movement at that time and who are very eager to tell their stories."

The Pettus bridge, scene of one of the seminal moments in the U.S. civil rights movement, is high on the list. It was here that about 600 marchers who were peacefully protesting racist voting laws were attacked by state troopers with billy clubs and tear gas. More than 50 protesters had to be hospitalized.

"I learned from people who, when they were kids 7 and 9 years old, were going there marching and facing violence," says Pham. "I listened and thought, `You were there, you were in jail when you were 9 years old, you were incredible.'"

A schoolmate, Samantha Hart, 14, says no classroom experience compares. "A teacher can only tell you what they know, and they don't always know everything that happened," she says. "The people who tell you about being there can tell you exactly what happened to them."

Veterans of the civil rights movement who tell their stories say the opportunity validates old struggles and empowers them in new ones.

STORIES NOT ALWAYS EASY TO TELL

"I was there when the church was bombed," says Carolyn McKinstry...