Two years ago, Bryan and I were invited by our friends from synagogue to a Facing History and Ourselves gala. The keynote speaker that night was Bryan Stevenson, a social justice activist and lawyer, whose life work has been fighting racial discrimination in the criminal justice system. We were moved by his speech and made a small donation that evening to his organization. A few weeks later, we were surprised to receive the book he spoke about, Just Mercy, in the mail.

Just Mercy is part memoir of Bryan Stevenson’s life and work with the Equal Justice Initiative, his human rights organization based in Montgomery. In it he tells one heartbreaking story after another of the people whom our broken and racists systems, particularly the criminal justice system, has failed. He wrote about his dream of creating a museum and memorial honoring the many African American lives our country has simultaneously been built on and taken.

We Googled the Equal Justice Initiative every few weeks, and finally, an opening date was announced this spring. We booked our tickets immediately for Memorial Day weekend 2018.

Montgomery was once the center of the Trans Atlantic and Domestic Slave Trade, and was one of the few places that still illegally brought in slaves 40 years after the US had abolished slavery. 40 years! It was also the center of the Civil Rights movement, the location of the Rosa Parks bus boycott, and is located at the end of the Selma-Montgomery march route. 

Today, Montgomery, the capital of the State of Alabama, is a sleepy town. A confederate statue stands to the side of the City Hall and the Southern Poverty Law Center (headquartered there) has been built to withstand bombings by local hate groups. The downtown area is full of abandoned warehouses and many businesses were closed for the holiday weekend.

Thanks to the Equal Justice Initiative museum and memorial, tourism to the area has increased, and so has gentrification. One of the highlights of our trip was meeting More Than Tours (a local non profit and social enterprise) founder Michelle Browder, who is doing amazing and necessary work uplifting local youth. When you plan your trip to Montgomery, we highly recommend taking her tour!

Here’s a list of where we stayed, ate, visited in Montgomery, Alabama. Have you visited Montgomery? If so, please share your recommendations with us in the comments. Thank you!!

EAT
Island Delight- Jamaican cuisine,  open for breakfast & lunch.
Cahawba House- Southern cuisine, open for breakfast & lunch.
El Rey Burrito Lounge- open for dinner.
Central- open for lunch and dinner.

DRINK
Leroy Lounge
Prevail Union Cafe- craft coffee in the morning, wine in the afternoon in the pocket park Prevail shares with Kress on Dexter
Common Bond Brewers

SLEEP
Renaissance Hotel- this is where we stayed. It was very centrally located, though next time we hope to find a smaller, more family-owned place. *Update Michelle’s family is working on a BnB!!*

VISIT
Equal Justice Initiative National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Equal Justice Initiative Legacy Museum- make sure to make an appointment ahead of time.
*In the next few months, the EJI is opening a concert and lecture venue across the street from the memorial, as well as a cafe and bookstore downtown!

Southern Poverty Law Civil Rights Memorial
Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
Rosa Parks Library and Museum
Freedom Rides Museum
Kress on Dexter- art gallery, storytelling booth, and Prevail Union café.
I am More Than Tours- our tour with Michelle was definitely a big highlight. I am More Than is a social enterprise and social justice tour.

NEARBY
Selma Interpretive Center
Edmund Pettus Bridge- location of Bloody Sunday in 1975, when police officers brutally attacked unarmed peaceful civil rights demonstrators.

WHAT I READ/WATCHED BEFORE VISITING:
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (visionary behind EJI)
The 13th (documentary) by Ava DuVernay
Selma by Ava DuVernay

OUR ITINERARY:
From San Francisco, fly direct to Atlanta
Drive from Atlanta to Montgomery (2 hours)
Drive from Montgomery to Selma  (1 hour) and/or Mobile (2.5 hours)
Drive to New Orleans (5 hours from Selma, 4.5 hours from Montgomery)
From New Orleans, fly direct to San Francisco
*We did this in one week