The Legacy Museum

About

The Legacy Museum is in downtown Montgomery, Alabama. It was created by the Equal Justice Initiative and traces the history of racial injustice in the United States, from the transatlantic slave trade through lynching and segregation to mass incarceration today. It is one of four Legacy Sites in the city, along with the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Freedom Monument Sculpture Park and Montgomery Square.

The museum is dense and interactive, and the Legacy Sites say most visitors spend three to five hours inside. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice, a mostly outdoor space honoring victims of racial terror lynching, takes one to two hours, as does Freedom Monument Sculpture Park beside the Alabama River. All the sites are self-guided, and private tours are not allowed. Photographs are not permitted inside the museum, and you are asked to turn your phone off. The subject matter is hard, so parents should decide ahead how to prepare children.

One $5 general admission ticket covers all four sites. It gives timed entry to the museum, with re-entry the same day, and entry to the other sites on any day. The sites are open Wednesday through Monday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and closed Tuesdays, with last entry to the museum at 5 p.m. From Nov. 1 to Feb. 28 they close at 5 p.m. They close on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Buy tickets online, since only a limited number of same-day tickets are sold at the museum.

Free parking is available at each site, and free shuttles run between them every 15 minutes. The memorial is about a 20-minute walk from the museum. A 15-minute boat ride on the Alabama River also runs to the sculpture park from 101 Morris Street. The museum has an on-site restaurant, and the Rosa Parks Museum and the Dexter Avenue church where Martin Luther King Jr. preached are a few blocks away.

Accessibility

The Legacy Museum is wheelchair accessible, and so are the other Legacy Sites. The Equal Justice Initiative says all three of its main sites are accessible to visitors using strollers, scooters, walkers, wheelchairs and other mobility devices.

Each site has free handicapped parking, accessible entrances, ramps and accessible restrooms. The free shuttle that links the museum, the memorial and the sculpture park every 15 minutes is accessible too, which matters because the sites are a 15 to 20 minute walk apart. Manual wheelchairs and motorized scooters are free to borrow, first come, first served.

For visitors who are blind or have low vision, the sites have safety lighting and easy-to-read signs. Sighted guides and verbal descriptions are available if you book at least two weeks ahead.

For visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing, all media at the Legacy Sites is open captioned, and the signs and written content are designed to be easy to read.

Service animals as defined by the Department of Justice are allowed at all sites, but pets and emotional support animals are not. The museum is emotionally heavy and many visitors spend hours inside; a re-entry wristband lets you step out for a break or lunch and return the same day. To arrange any accommodation, call (334) 386-9100 at least two weeks before your visit.

Checked by Accessible America, September 2026. Report a change

More accessible places in Alabama

• Civil Rights Memorial (Montgomery)
• Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument (Birmingham)
• Freedom Riders National Monument (Anniston)
• Russell Cave National Monument (Bridgeport)
• Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Site (Tuskegee)
• USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park (Mobile)

Photo credits

• The Legacy Museum at dusk, with lit window panels along its facade in Montgomery.: Soniakapadia, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
• Rows of glass jars filled with soil, lit from behind in a dark gallery at the Legacy Museum.: Soniakapadia, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)
• Rusted steel monuments hang overhead along a corridor at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice.: Soniakapadia, CC BY-SA 4.0 (source)