The Legacy Museum — Attraction in Montgomery

I had always followed the EJI on their Facebook page and was very excited when I saw that they were opening a museum dedicated to mass incarceration and an adjoining memorial dedicated to lynching victims. Being only a 2 1/2 hour car ride from where we live, my boyfriend and I decided to drive down this past weekend and had a pleasant time visiting both sites.

Upon arriving, I had not preordered my tickets and since you can't buy tickets inside the museum itself, I had to buy them from their ticket office that was about a block away (there are signs that show you how to get there from the museum). After purchasing tickets for both the museum and the memorial site ($22 for 2 adults), we were told that the museum was doing a timed entry and though we had got there at 9am, we had to enter the museum during another time slot that started at 11:45 am. So the sales person told us to visit the memorial site first, which we did.

They gave us a sheet of paper that had not the best directions to the memorial site, which was about half a mile away. That address is 417 Caroline Street. We decided to just walk over there. After exploring the memorial, we walked back to the museum and spent 4 hours looking at all the exhibits, interactive maps, listening to inmates stories and personal accounts.

Before entering the museum, you go through security and they tell you that you can't take pictures and are told to turn off your phone during your visit. The first couple of exhibits go through slavery, and you learn about Montgomery, Alabama's heavy involvement in the slave trade. Then further in the museum, you learn about things like Segregation, Jim Crow Laws, Lynchings, Convict leasing and the state of mass incarceration today.

They have excerpts that were used to advertise for buying slaves, a wall of racist laws that existed all across America, interactive maps where you can see how many people were lynched across America by touching the screen. There are also 3 different screening rooms that play short films on a loop (one about slavery, inmate's stories about corrupt officers and the 1955 bus boycotts).

There's an incarceration section where you can read letters from current inmates who write to the EJI to help them with their cases which are really heartbreaking to read. Then there are tables where you can hear inmates accounts of their experiences in prison and how so many of them are in there for the most trivial of things.

There are a few touch screens where you can learn about lynching victims. Before you touch the screen there is a warning that what you are about to view is graphic, which I thought was a good idea to include since there were a lot of kids there.

Before you leave, there is a waiting area with seats and interactive screens that tell you how you can get involved and volunteer with organizations across the country.

The museum has no parking, so you have to park on the street, but it looked like there was plenty of metered parking available.

All in all, this was a fantastic museum and I am glad that we made the trip down there. It's pretty hard-hitting, but very necessary to have a museum like...

Where to begin...First: Allow plenty of time. This is a monumental amount of info, and it takes time to absorb. Second: No matter how well-schooled you are in this topic, guaranteed there's stuff you didn't know. Really, if this arena of history is new to you, there's no way you'll absorb and see every single bit in just a few hours. It could certainly be a 2 day visit.

Also be prepared for the emotional impact. Thank goodness Strange Fruit isn't playing in the background.

What's best is the logical thread woven by the creators of the EJI of the brutal terrorism used by whites to extract hard labor through various forms of enslavement..all the way from chattel slavery, to prisoner leasing to today's lock 'em up and throw away the key industrial prisons.

Pictures of young black children shackled and clothed in prison stripes as adults make you see the pictures of kids in today's orange jumpsuits that adorn the walls as the same enslavement and extraction of work on the halvers - inhumane treatment based solely on greed and white supremacy.

The lynching memorial; the rectangles hanging like coffins, bearing the names of fellow Americans killed by mobs; tortured and denied any sort of due process, many in front of gleeful crowds thirsting for desecration of a symbolic black body, is a staunch reminder of the true but ignored history of domestic terrorism in this country that was unleashed upon the lifting of enslavement. I call this "blacklash", and as you walk through the museum, realize that the quest for equal justice takes 3 steps forward and 2 steps back as justice is achieved and denied..helps to understand how Obama was followed by Trump, for example.

There definitely should be more historical markers of this terrorism throughout the South than there are Confederancy memorials.

This is, hands down, the best museum and memorial of the history of Africans and the African Americans' condition...none of the other museums across the country, including the Smithsonian, even come close.

Please make your way to Montgomery to this excellent example of what a museum and memorial should be. The sculptures, artwork and literary works alone are worth the price of a plane ticket.

Parking isn't bad, and, of course, Montgomery has a lot of CRM historical sites. Also, note that there's absolutely no picture taking, and the museum is very heavily secure. For pics of what you've seen, there are books and calendars at low cost in the gift shop. Also, an outstanding book by culinary historian Michael Twitty is on sale here - "The Cooking Gene" is without a doubt a great addition to the cultural history of the South from a culinary perspective.

Do wish the wearables in the gift shop said Equal Justice Initiative instead of just initials. Better yet, wish there was a Lynching...

We are thankful that while staying at the Trilogy Hotel within walking distance, we were advised about this amazing Museum. I am speechless and can't find the words to describe our experience, but, it was lifechanging and like nothing we have ever experienced. We been to other great museums but none spoke to us like this one and none brought us to tears like this one. Everything was done extremely well and put together very well. We were at awe! We learned more than we ever imagined and our hearts broke at the same time as we gave honor for every enslaved person who endured such unspeakable and inhumane treatment. The stories were brought to life and made me feel deeply... Heartfelt thanks for this lesson, experience and opportunity to be face the truth of the real history. The free transportation bus to the other installations/project sites was very helpful and very convenient. Each location left us speechless and educated and heartbroken yet a very necessary experience for everyone. It would likely be hard for small children and some younger youth to go through this experience. While it was all very heartbreaking, it was also very heartwarming to be reminded of the strength and will to live... The Legacy Museum price was very nominal which was very surprising! What a gift to make it affordable for every single person. The gift shop is very nice and a great way to give back and to help the project. Bathrooms were very clean and the whole facility is simply amazing architecture! All of the staff were very professional and very helpful! The onsite restaurant was amazing too! Everything was very fresh, affordable, and very good! Service was great and the tables were very clean! The collard greens were amazing, as were the mac and cheese, chicken and all the food! Only disappointment was apparently the menu changes each day so when I went back the next day for more greens and wings, they weren't on the menu that day. Oh, the baked chicken was dry and they were kind enough to let me exchange it for fried chicken. The manager was especially very nice. Overall, it was a very nice touch to...