The beloved country music capital has a past that often remains mysterious to both locals and tourists. But what you might not know?

Nashville was at the forefront of the civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. dubbed the Nashville sit-ins as “the best organized and most disciplined in all of Southland” says Chakita Patterson, founder of United Street Tours.

“Untold stories about Nashville’s involvement leaves many to wonder, why is Nashville Tours important to the civil rights movement?” That’s why United Street Tours —which hosts unconventional, guided tours of Nashville’s lesser-known black history—created its Nashville Civil Rights Movement Tour.

On this 1.5-hour guided tour, you’ll learn the fascinating, untold stories of female civil rights leader Diane Nash, well-know leaders such as Congressman John Lewis, and many other individuals who participated in the Nashville civil rights movement during the1960s.

United Street Tours leads the way through downtown Nashville sharing stories of how ordinary college students went to ordinary places and brought about extraordinary change. The most popular locations on the tour are Woolworth on 5th and the Nashville Civil Rights Room. The Civil rights tour Nashville gives you a behind-the-scenes tour of Woolworth and encourages you to spend time at the lunch counter to reflect.

The tour also offers deeper insight into the Civil Rights Room, which is lovingly referred to by Patterson as “the Nashville Civil Rights Museum.” The tour ends at this one-room, civil rights museum, with some encouragement to get involved with movements in your communities to advance the push for a more just world.