Janet Jackson got a private tour of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute hours before she took the stage on April 22 at the BJCC for the “Together Again” tour.

Jackson documented the tour on her Instagram account. She posted a photo of herself in the BCRI courtyard, thanking institute CEO Dejuana Thompson and historian Barry McNealy for guiding them through the galleries and “sharing their invaluable knowledge.”

Jackson initially posted video of the tour to her Instagram story highlights. That video is gone now, but the Instagram account janetjacksonnewsandupdates reposted the footage.

The video starts outside in the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute courtyard where Jackson and her team follow Thompson and McNealy up the steps and inside. Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin is also seen walking alongside the group.

Inside of the institute, the tour starts outside of the galleries in front of a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King’s eulogy of the four little girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963 before heading into the exhibition room.

“We start our experience taking you back in time, because its kind of hard to see what you see from 2023,” said McNealy, before leading the group into the exhibitions “So we take you back to 1871.”

The group followed McNealy and Thompson into the BCRI galleries (the BCRI tour experience starts with a movie about the founding of the city of Birmingham, which was charted in 1871).

In the video, McNealy can be seen leading guests through the exhibitions while stopping at different points to explain text and artifacts. In the education portion of the gallery, McNealy discussed the disparities between segregated schools.

“Same city, same time, same school system. But you see a marked difference. And this difference permeates society,” said McNealy, showing the difference between classroom in a white school and the classroom in a white school.

Pointing the text display about the history of A.H. Parker high school in Birmingham, McNealy explained the significance of the first public high school for Black people in the city.

“When we talk about this school, it was known as Parker High School. It was called the largest Negro High School in the world by Ebony Magazine. That’s not a positive,” said McNealy. “It was the largest school because it was the only school for people of color in this area. The teachers at this school were heroes. They taught twice the students every day that their white counterparts did for half the salary. But that’s not it. They also had to teach in the evening. Because before this high school was created, Black people couldn’t get a high school diploma in Birmingham.”

Watch the full video of the tour.