Must-SeeNational Memorial for Peace and Justice
Eight hundred hanging steel columns, one for each county where lynchings took place, with the names of more than 4,000 victims.
Montgomery
Where Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat and where the Selma marchers ended, with America's most powerful memorial to the victims of lynching.
Alabama's capital was both the first capital of the Confederacy and the birthplace of the civil rights movement. Dr. King preached at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, two blocks from where Jefferson Davis took his oath.
Bryan Stevenson's Equal Justice Initiative created the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum, which have transformed the city into a place of pilgrimage.
- Best Time
- March to May, October and November
- Time Needed
- 2 days
- Cost Level
- $$$$
- Open
- Year-round
- Getting There
- About 2.5 hours from Atlanta by car, or 90 minutes from Birmingham.
The Short List
10 sights, 3 of them free. Tick off what you've seen and rise from Sailor to Captain of Montgomery.
Your Montgomery list0 of 10 visited
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Must-See
Must-See
Must-SeeLegacy Museum
From enslavement to mass incarceration, on the site of a former slave warehouse, told with holograms and first-person stories.
Must-SeeRosa Parks Museum
On the very spot where she refused to move in 1955, the museum recreates the moment on an old bus and tells of the 381-day boycott.
Worth a Detour
Worth a DetourDexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church and Parsonage
Martin Luther King Jr.'s pulpit from 1954 to 1960, where he led the bus boycott, with a mural downstairs and his home nearby.
Worth a DetourAlabama State Capitol
A white-domed Greek Revival capitol where Jefferson Davis became president of the Confederacy and where the Selma-to-Montgomery march ended in 1965.
Worth a DetourCivil Rights Memorial
Maya Lin's black granite water table with the names of 41 martyrs of the movement, outside the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
The newest of the Legacy Sites, a riverside park with large sculptures and a monument bearing the names of 122,000 people freed from slavery.
Worth a DetourEdmund Pettus Bridge in Selma
Where marchers were beaten on Bloody Sunday in 1965. It's about an hour west of Montgomery, and the march's route between them is a National Historic Trail.
If You're Nearby
If You're NearbyFreedom Rides Museum
The old Greyhound station where a white mob attacked Freedom Riders in 1961, with the story of their ride told on the walls outside.
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald Museum
The only museum dedicated to the Jazz Age couple, in the house where they lived in 1931 and 1932, near Zelda's hometown streets.
Neighborhoods
- DowntownThe Capitol, Dexter Avenue and Legacy Sites.
- Old Alabama Town19th-century buildings.
- CloverdaleLeafy streets, the Fitzgerald Museum and restaurants.
Getting Around
Downtown's sights are walkable, and free Legacy Sites shuttles link the EJI museums and memorials. You'll want a car for Selma and the Selma to Montgomery Trail. Rideshares fill other gaps.
Plan Your Visit
- Day 1: the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Day 2: the Rosa Parks Museum, Dexter Avenue Church, the Capitol and Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge, about an hour west.
Know Before You Go
- EJI sites are moving and upsetting; allow time.
- Combine a ticket for the Legacy Sites.
Where to Stay
Stay downtown.
What to Eat
- Chris' Hot DogsOpen since 1917, with a famous chili sauce. Dr. King and Hank Williams both ate here.
- Soul foodFilet & Vine and the local plate-lunch places.
- Martha's PlaceA beloved buffet from a once-homeless single mother.
- BarbecueDreamland, a Tuscaloosa legend, has a location here.
Where to Eat
Our picks are on the way.
Editor's picks. Nobody paid to be on this list.
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Traveler Reviews
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Go Next
If You're NearbyBirmingham
Alabama
Where the civil rights struggle's turning point took place in 1963, a former steel city with a giant iron statue on its hill and a great food scene.
Full Guide
If You're NearbyAtlanta
Georgia
Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthplace and church, the Georgia Aquarium and World of Coca-Cola.
Full Guide
Must-SeeLast checked 2026-11-01. Part of the Southeast list.