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

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, who was 14 when Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church was bombed by white supremacists on Sept. 15, 1963. Four Sunday school students, Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robert son, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Mae Collins, 14, were killed.

"There are times when it is difficult to relate the story, and times when I do not want to talk about it," McKinstry says. "What I try to instill in students is the wonderful amount of change that can be brought about."

Students who have met her and other civil rights activists say they have been encouraged to stand up for what is right, even if the ideals are unpopular. Pham and Hart say their participation in a rally for welfare rights at Minnesota's capitol building in St. Paul last month was in part. inspired by their experiences in Alabama, which they shared with classmates.

"I studied with them when they came back," says Tristan Brown, 12. "I learned from them that going there, and reading about it, are totally different things. They said it was amazing to go there and imagine how kids in a children's crusade were marching and going to jail."

SPIRITUALLY RIGHTING WRONGS

Many of the states that once denied voting and other basic rights to African-Americans are now producing materials for civil rights history tours. Southside teachers Eliza Goodwin and Suzie Oppenheim, who are planning their school's next tour, say Alabama has gone the extra mile with its glossy, 55-page "Black Heritage" booklet as a guide.

Students say mat such an effort suggests that Albama is on the right track toward spiritually righting the sins of slavery and the oppression that followed.

"A lot of history happened there," said Pham. "Maybe they can pay back what happened to African-Americans by giving tours, and more understanding, and educating people that this was wrong. I think it is a form of reparation."