Freedom Monument Sculpture Park ranked among 25 Best Places to go in the South

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(Pat Byington / The Bama Buzz)
The National Monument to Freedom inside the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. (Pat Byington / The Bama Buzz)

If you’re making plans to visit must-see sites in the South, look no further than the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park.

Located in Montgomery, the 17-acre park—which honors the 10 million Black people who were enslaved in America—was recently featured in Southern Living’s The 25 Best Places To Go In The South In 2025.

Montgomery’s newest national monument: Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
The entrance to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. (Caleb Turrentine / The Bama Buzz)

Unveiled to the public on March 17, 2024, the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is the third and latest addition to the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Sites. The park is located on 17 acres along the Alabama River—a waterway that once facilitated the passage of tens of thousands of enslaved workers—and illustrates the legacy of slavery in America through multiple exhibits, sculptures and art installations, including:

  • “We am very cold”, a metal sculpture depicting nine figures in chains and shackles struggling against the cold, created by Ghanian artist Kwama Akoto-Bamfo.
  • “Mama, I Hurt My Hand”, another metal sculpture by Kwame Akoto-Bamfo, depicting a mother and child working in a field.
  • Authentic, 170-year-old dwellings used to house enslaved families.
  • Replicas of a transport box car and slave-holding pen.
(Pat Byington / The Bama Buzz)
The National Monument to Freedom inside the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park. (Pat Byington / The Bama Buzz)

Inside the park lies the centerpiece monument—the National Monument to Freedom, a nearly four-story-tall granite monument engraved with the names of more than 100,000 formerly enslaved people who were part of the 1870 census following the Civil War.

Plan your visit to the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park

The Freedom Monument Sculpture Park is one of the Equal Justice Initiative’s (EJI) three Legacy Sites—a series of exhibits that, “invite visitors to reckon with our history of racial injustice in places where that history was lived.” The three Legacy Sites are:

The EJI recommends that visitors plan to spend 3-5 hours at The Legacy Museum, 1-2 hours at The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and 1-2 hours at the Freedom Monument National Park.

One $5 general admission ticket gets you into all three Legacy Sites—and you don’t have to visit all three in one day. Each general admission ticket includes admission to the memorial and monument on any date.

No photos or videos are allowed in the museum and people are encouraged to turn their phones completely off while moving through the museum. 

Have you visited the Freedom Monument Sculpture Park or the EJI’s other Legacy Sites? Let us know @thebamabuzz.

Nathan Watson
Nathan Watson

Tennessee native who fell in love with Birmingham during college. Graduated from Birmingham-Southern College in 2019. Passionate about Birmingham and its continued growth.

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