From the Freedom Riders, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Montgomery Bus Boycott the iconic city’s historical events have made Montgomery an important destination for American history and the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement.
The National Memorial for Peace & Justice
The nation's first memorial dedicated to the legacy of enslaved Black people, people terrorized by lynchings, and African Americans humiliated by racial segregation. The six-acre site includes a memorial square with 805 six-foot corten steel monuments symbolizing the thousands of racial terror lynching victims in the United States and the counties where they took place.
Visitors are taken on a journey — initially greeted with a statue depicting chained slaves—and the pain and abuse inflicted. As you approach the memorial the corten steel monuments are equally suspended. The first set of monuments is a few inches off the floor — as the walking path gradually sloops the monuments rise until they are far above your head depicting the terrible fate of lynching victims. It is a powerful memorial and sober reminder of our painful history.
Legacy Museum
Blocks from the most prominent slave auction in the country and the train station that trafficked tens of thousands of Black people — the Legacy Museum provides a comprehensive history of Transatlantic Slave Trade and America through the domestic slave trade, reconstruction, racial segregation, and mass incarceration.
The museum uses technology, art, and design to dramatize the horror and terror of enslavement, lynchings, and legalized racial segregation — including soil collected from the sites of lynching in Alabama are displayed in glass jars. The Legacy Museum also includes an art gallery with works from the most celebrated Black artists in the country.
Court Square Fountain
The 1885 Neoclassic fountain on top of an artesian well and site where slaves were auctioned, depicts Hebe — the Greek goddess of eternal youth is believed to be the work of American sculptor Frederick William MacMonnies. The fountain includes a series of seated boys, Narcissus figures, and pelicans. Memphis, TN and Bowling Greens, KY have nearly identical fountains.
Court Square is surrounded by history. Across from the fountain, is the Winter Building, where the telegram giving the order for Confederate troops to fire upon Union forces at Fort Sumter — officially starting the American Civil War leading to millions of casualties. A few blocks away is the State Capitol Building in Greek Revival in style and the First White House of the Confederacy. Prior to Richmond, the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States authorized the leasing of the 1835 Italianate-style mansion in Montgomery. The classic 1851 Murphy House was once the home of a cotton and slavery merchant; at the end of the Civil War, it became the headquarters of the Union Provost Marshal during the military occupation and reunification of Alabama. And the bus stop that Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her seat thus starting the Montgomery Bus Boycott is across from the fountain.
Civil Rights Movement
There is no better city for the Civil Rights Memorial, Montgomery served as the endpoint of the third march for voting rights from Selma. Holt Street Baptist Church and King Memorial Baptist Church where Montgomery Bus Boycott was organized, and Dr. King advocated action without violence. The Dexter Parsonage Museum, the former home of Dr. King that was bombed several times — and the Federal Courthouse where Judge Frank M. Johnson Jr. legalized desegregation of buses and ruled the Selma march was legal and could continue.
The Civil Rights Memorial commemorates those that died in the struggle with a poignant monument featuring a quote by Martin Luther King, “until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream”—water is constantly flowing over the monument. The Freedom Rides Museum is located at Historic Greyhound Bus Station—on May 20, 1961, twenty-one integrated college students from Nashville arrived in Montgomery and met with violence. The museum traces their journey and non-violent protest that helped changed segregation laws.
Rosa Parks
It wouldn’t be a trip to Montgomery without visiting Rosa Parks, the American activist best known for her pivotal role in the Montgomery bus boycott. On December 1, 1955, Parks who refused the bus driver's order to vacate a seat in the "colored" section in favor of a white passenger, once the "white" section was filled — was arrested for civil disobedience.
Although Parks was not the first person to resist bus segregation her act of defiance drew the attention of NAACP, Edgar Nixon, and Martin Luther King Jr. — and the Montgomery bus boycott became an important symbol of the civil rights movement. A year later, the U.S. District Court ruled bus segregation is unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution—88-year after the law was written. The United States Congress has honored her as "the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement”.
Rosa Parks Library and Museum is located where she was arrested and chronicles the civil rights moment and Montgomery Bus Boycott — the museum transports visitors back in time to witness segregation first hand. Her statue and bus stop is a block away at Court Square.
Food, Literature, & Music
Montgomery makes it easy to enjoy jazz, blues, country music, and literature. From the Great Gatsby, Tender is the Night, and Save Me the Waltz — the Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum is dedicated to their lives, writings, and legacies. Tour the country music legends Hank Williams Museum with his boots, hats, horse saddles, awards, memorabilia, and 1952 Baby Blue Cadillac. And blues and jazz bars can be found in The Alley and throughout the city. Dreamland BBQ and Central are two great restaurant venues.
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