A Guide to the Birthplace of Civil Rights: A Montgomery Tour

(11 reviews)

Montgomery, Alabama audio tour: A Guide to the Birthplace of Civil Rights: A Montgomery Tour

This is a 2.8mi walking tour

It takes an average of 120 mins to complete.

Montgomery, Alabama

The United States

$14.99

Access all 50 locations offline with the VoiceMap app

Buy for a Group

Reviews

About the Tour

As both the birthplace of Civil Rights and the Cradle of the Confederacy, Montgomery played a pivotal role in slavery, the Civil War, and the rise of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s practically an open museum with historical sites on almost every corner. You’ll see most of them on this walking tour as I introduce you to this important city’s humble beginnings.

The tour begins with emotional heft outside the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, dedicated to the country’s victims of racial lynching. From there, you’ll wind your way through the city center and see a smattering of museums dedicated in some aspect to the Civil Rights Movement, including the Freedom Rides Museum, Rosa Parks Museum, Civil Rights Memorial Center and the Legacy Museum, where our tour ends.

Along the way, you’ll visit the almost 200-year-old Court Square Fountain, which served as the starting point of Montgomery when two independent towns merged to form the new city. You’ll hear how the picturesque square surrounding the fountain was one of the most prominent slave auction sites in the South. I’ll also show you the First White House of the Confederacy where former president Jefferson Davis resided in 1861. From there, you’ll walk down the historical Dexter Avenue and away from the Alabama State Capitol, where the march from Selma culminated in a passionate speech by Dr. Martin Luther King in 1965.

On this two-hour tour, you’ll also:

Take in the city’s iconic memorials including the Rosa Parks Bus Stop, Hank Williams Statue and Korean War Memorial
Find out about Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium’s history as a Civil War prisoner-of-war camp in the late 1800s
See where Martin Luther King Jr spoke about Rosa Parks’ arrest outside the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church
Hear about the city’s country music legend while passing by the Hank Williams Museum
Grab a bite or a refreshing drink at local favorites Chris’ Famous Hotdogs, Tower Taproom, or the Aviator Bar

By the end of this tour, you’ll have a better grasp of the role Montgomery played in shaping the South and the United States into what it is today. So get ready to learn, explore, and have fun!

Music

Redwood Trail by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Front Porch Sitter by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Plantation by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.

Tour Producer

Phil Biedron

17 tours

Hello I'm Phil. A Chicagoan by way of Los Angeles and now in Atlanta. In addition to hosting tours, I am also a working actor; probably on some shows you have seen!

Preview Location

Location 1

Intro at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice

Hello and welcome to the historic Montgomery walking tour. My name is Phil and I'll be your narrator today. In addition to spending over a decade as a tour guide in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, I now create audio tours for locations where I'm not physically present.
... Hello and welcome to the historic Montgomery walking tour. My name is Phil and I'll be your narrator today. In addition to spending over a decade as a tour guide in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Atlanta, I now create audio tours for locations where I'm not physically present.

Before you get started, let's get a couple of housekeeping notes out of the way. You're going to walk a lot: about 3 miles. The tour should take you roughly two hours, but please, go at your own pace. You can pause the tour at any time. I won't be offended. I'm not even there. Take as many photos as you like but please watch out for cars.

And one last thing: here's how Voicemap works. We'll be following the route line today and when you're close enough to the next stop, my voice will chime in to give you some information about the location. You can consult your phone to make sure you are on the right path as often as you like. You can also check the thumbnail photo on the app to make sure you're looking in the right direction. If you find yourself lost, VoiceMap will let you know. It's a Voice and a Map, get it?

You should be at the entrance to the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, although it's informally known simply as the Lynching Memorial. The six-acre site was created by the Equal Justice Initiative; a nonprofit based in Montgomery that aims to combat racial injustice. The EJI also operates the Legacy Museum, which will be our last stop on the tour.

The atmosphere here is somber and it includes some graphic and chilling monuments. The largest installation is composed of large monolithic rusted blocks which gradually are suspended higher and higher from the floor; suggesting a body hanging from a rope. Needless to say, this might not be appropriate for young children.

Stenciled on the blocks are the names of American Africans who were victims of racist lynchings which occurred predominately in the southern United States from the early 1800s to the mid-1900s. Sadly, some names have been lost to time or due to poor historical records. Each one of the 800 steel monuments lists the various counties in which these awful crimes were committed. An estimated 4,400 American Africans lost their lives due to lynchings during this tumultuous period.

Let's get going, with the entrance on your right, please walk straight down Caroline street. If it's springtime, you should be greeted by a beautiful garden of flowers on your right.

What was the cause of these episodes of domestic terrorism? After the Civil War when the Confederacy was defeated, the Federal military oversaw local governance in many Southern states. This era was known as Reconstruction. While peace was kept for a time and blacks were gradually elected into government positions in the Southern states, the Reconstruction period was short-lived. By 1877, the Republican party that held control of the White House gradually withdrew federal troops from all former Confederate states. Southern Democrat politicians used this opportunity to regain the power they lost during the Civil War. It was at this time that the white supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan was formed to intimidate black voters.

Keep going straight. Read More

View locations and route

How VoiceMap Works

Focus on your surroundings, not the screen

The VoiceMap app uses GPS to play audio automatically, at the right time and place, so you can focus on your surroundings, not the screen.

Follow a route with turn-by-turn-directions

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a fixed starting point. That lets us give turn-by-turn directions and use context to tell a better story.

Resume playback to go at your own pace

If you'd like to stop for a drink or go into a museum, end your tour then use the Resume feature to pick up exactly where you left off.

Listen as many times as you like

You can listen to your tours as often as you like using both the VoiceMap app and website.

Take virtual tours anywhere, like a podcast

Select Virtual mode in the VoiceMap app to listen to tours like a podcast - at home or in transit.

Buy for less on voicemap.me and sync

Once you've purchased a tour, it's added to your VoiceMap library. To access it in the app, just sign in using the same account.

Do tours without paying for data

Tours work offline, so you don't have to pay roaming fees. Just download them over WiFi before you get started.

Major Landmarks

The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
Korean War Memorial
The Dowe Houses
Dexter Avenue Footprints
Alabama State Bar
Hank Williams Statue
Tower Taproom
Rosa Parks Bus Stop
Freedom Rides Museum
Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts
Rosa Parks Museum
Chris' Famous Hotdogs
Civil Rights Memorial
The First White House of the Confederacy
Alabama State Capitol
Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church
RSA Tower Building
The Hank Williams Museum
Aviator Bar
Montgomery Riverwalk Stadium
The Legacy Museum

View all

Getting There

Route Overview

VoiceMap tours follow a route from a set starting point. It’s how we give turn-by-turn directions and tell a story greater than the sum of its parts.

Start location
417 Caroline St, Montgomery, AL 36104, USA
Total distance

5km
Final location
400 N Court St, Montgomery, AL 36104, USA
Distance back to start location

1km

Directions to Starting Point

The tour begins at the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, located at 417 Caroline St, Montgomery, AL 36104, which has free parking. Since we end the tour at its sister museum (Legacy), you will be able to take a shuttle from one to the other free of charge.

Sadly, there are no public transit options that I am aware of.

Show Directions

Gift vouchers

Buy tours for friends and family who delight in discovery

Buy Now

Buy for a group

Get 15% to 50% off when you buy for a group

Buy Now

License this tour

Adapt this tour to use your brand and suit your guests

Find out more

Tips

Places to stop along the way

If your budget can spare it, Central is an amazing American fusion restaurant and the best in the city.

While a bit outside the downtown core, it's worth visiting the gravesite of early country music legend, Hank Williams Sr. at Oakwood Cemetery.

A 50 minute drive from Montgomery is Selma, where the march began!
If in season, catching the Montgomery Biscuits minor league baseball game is a cheap and family friendly way to spend an afternoon. Not to mention the great views on the riverfront.

The steamboat Harriott II is in operation. Check the schedule, and perhaps you might find yourself on a jazz cruise!

Best time of day

Any time, but if you want to peak inside some of the stops, daytime is best. For the bars and restaurants on Commerce don't come alive until after 5pm. Note: The Legacy Museum and Peace and Justice Memorial is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Precautions

As with any American city, there are panhandlers. When you get to Court Square usually someone will approach you and offer information about Rosa Parks, etc. They will then ask for some payment. I suggest you politely decline or mention sorry I can't right now, I'm doing a tour.

Montgomery is quite safe in my opinion. The real danger is the heat in the summertime. Prepare with sunglasses, sunblock, and fully charged headphones and you should be good to go.

Get The App

Download tours to use them offline

Listen hands-free with GPS playback

Get turn-by-turn directions

Scan the QR Code

“This app has become my go-to app for audio tours. I pretty much use it for every trip and it works wonderfully. I highly recommend VoiceMap for travelers to truly experience cities.”

App Store Review

“Great app. walk around at your own pace, stop where you want, move on or speed up when you want. Read the script before you go or during the commentary, speed it up or replay it. Repeat the tour whenever you like.”