Created by Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya Lin, the Memorial is located across the street from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s office building in Montgomery, Alabama, a city rich with civil rights history.A circular black granite table records the names of the martyrs and chronicles the history of the movement in lines that radiate like the hands of a clock. Water emerges from the table’s center and flows evenly across the top. On a curved black granite wall behind the table is engraved Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s well-known paraphrase of Amos 5:24 – We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.Like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Civil Rights Memorial invites visitors to touch the engraved names.

As Lin envisioned, the Memorial plaza is “a contemplative area; a place to remember the Civil Rights Movement, to honor those killed during the struggle, to appreciate how far the country has come in its quest for equality, and to consider how far it has to go.”

Civil Rights Memorial & Center

check out locations near you

Verified Listing

Civil Rights Memorial & Center

check out locations near you

Login