🌎 This Museum is Quite Possibly the Most Poignant and Impactful Museum to Visit in the World
& this week's travel tip and travel news; Vol. 60
I prefer to avoid being overly superlative when I talk about travel. It’s easy to say something is “the best” or “the most moving,” and throw these ideas around unnecessarily when it comes to talking about experiences on the road.
But when I say that the Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama was quite possibly one of the best and most emotionally stirring museums I’ve ever been to, I mean it.
The depth of research, detail, investment, honesty and truths about the enslavement and the subsequent mistreatment and perseverance of Black people in the United States is encapsulated in an extraordinarily moving way at the Legacy Museum and its sites throughout the city.
In this edition ⬇️
Visiting The Legacy Museum & Sites in Montgomery, AL
Travel Tip of the Week—Registering with Your Government When You Travel Abroad
Travel News of the Week—including this country that’s been dealing with a retaliatory uprising against its government this week 🗞️
Just a head’s up that this week’s edition contains some affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission for some of my recommendations at no additional cost to you, and helps keep The Weekly Traveller reader-supported.
Visiting The Legacy Museum & Sites in Montgomery, AL
In the early to mid 1800s, over 400,000 enslaved people lived in Montgomery. By the mid 1900s, it became an essential city in Black resistance during the Civil Rights Movement. In 2018, the immersive Legacy Museum opened to share the journey “from enslavement to mass incarceration” of Black Americans, and soon after that the Legacy Sites were created throughout the city.
Walking through the poignant exhibits at the Legacy Museum, you immediately recognize how candid, upfront and honest the museum is about enslavement and mass incarceration.
Facts, information and stories here at the museum are shared in exactly the upfront and interrogative way one would hope topics like enslavement and mass incarceration would be.
But when you visit The Legacy Museum, you immediately become aware of how editorialized the discussion of enslavement and mass incarceration has historically been in similar types of museums and institutions.
So, how can The Legacy Museum be so upfront and honest, when other museums seemingly can’t (or won’t)?
The Legacy Museum is a Privately Funded Museum
The Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) is a non-profit law firm and organization based in Montgomery. It was founded in 1989 by Bryan Stevenson, a public interest lawyer who has argued and won several cases at the United States Supreme Court.
Stevenson has won cases for over 140 wrongly convicted Black prisoners in the United States, and has appeared on several broadcasts to share his work, including meeting with Oprah several times.
Thanks to Bryan Stevenson and the behemoth that the EJI has become, it raised and funded an estimated $20 million for the Legacy Museum and its subsequent sites in Montgomery.
This is why a visit here feels like the museum pushes the needle a little more dedicatedly than other places.
The EJI has the context, resources and care to delve deeply into the deeply routed and systemic issues of racial discrimination that have plagued North America for hundreds of years.
What to Expect on a Visit to The Legacy Museum
The museum shares a detailed, chronological history of Black Americans “from enslavement to mass incarceration.”
It takes visitors through 400 years of history in several exhibits, beginning with the transatlantic slave trade and ending with the present day.
The thoroughly researched, detailed, uncensored and at times graphic accounts depict an accurate history of racial discrimination and Black excellence in the face of adversity in the United States.
No photos are allowed in the museum, which offers visitors the space to digest and be present with its teachings. You’ll really just have to visit to appreciate all that this museum presents, and learn about it for yourself.
The Legacy Museum is a heavy yet powerful place, and is really a must-visit for anyone coming to Montgomery, along with the other connected sites in town.
Other Legacy Sites in Montgomery You Must Visit
From the Legacy Museum, there are free shuttles to the other Legacy Sites in town, which are provided by EJI. You can access them on your own with a vehicle, but the free shuttles are efficient, comfortable and a good way to get around to access the sites:
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
According to EJI, this is the first memorial “dedicated to the legacy of Black Americans who were enslaved, terrorized by lynching, humiliated by racial segregation and presumed guilty and dangerous.”
The monuments sit on six acres of land, with over 800 hanging steel monuments representing each county where lynchings took place.
Freedom Monument Sculpture Park
The sculpture park is on the banks of the Alabama River, where tens of thousands of enslaved people were trafficked.
Today, art, sculptures and artifacts honour the lives and legacy of enslaved people in the United States.
You can access the park from the road, or take a free shuttle by boat on the river to retrace the footsteps of enslaved people.
Montgomery is a well-known city to visit for the Legacy Sites, but there is much more to do than just that, and it’s a worthwhile city for a weekend getaway. To help you plan your next trip to Montgomery, AL, you can find a full guide here.
Travel Tip of the Week: Registering with Your Government When You Travel Abroad
Every nation’s government and operates differently, so registering with your government isn’t necessarily going to be an option for everyone. But when it comes to updates, safety and your home country knowing where you are, it can come in helpful if something big comes up on the road.
Many of the G20 countries have some problematic takes when it comes to diplomatic relationships with other countries, or classifications of which countries are worth sharing travel advisories for.
If you look at the Canadian government’s classifications of nations safe to travel to, for example, there’s the note to excercise a “high degree of caution” (which is only the second option next to “take normal security measures”) for a wide variety of countries, whatever that means.
Sure, some issues pop up in different countries from time to time, but one should always exercise caution when they travel. You could recommend a high degree of caution for most countries.
This issue aside, it can be helpful to reference what your home country or passport-holding country thinks about the place you’re going to visit.
If your government does allow you to register when you travel abroad, it can be a good idea so that your local government knows where you are in the event of an emergency.
Reasons to Register with Your Government
If it’s an option, here are a few of the reasons registering with your government is a good idea:
In the event of an emergency or unexpected event, the local or regional consulate office will contact you with updates.
Most of the time when you’re on the ground, you can figure out what’s going on for yourself. But there may be other details you can’t access, or issues you may not know about, which a consulate will share with you.
At the time I lived in Turkiye (2014-2017), there was some political unrest—an attempted coup, and some terrorist attacks. Since I was registered with the Canadian government, I received updates with consular advisories.
None of the advisories changed how I lived my life day-to-day, but it was helpful to know what the Canadian government recommended or wanted to keep Canadians aware of.
In the event of a country looking to evacuate its own citizens and residents as a result of a natural or political emergency, your government knowing where you are is important.
As we know, local issues and natural disasters can materialize very quickly nowadays. With unpredictable weather patterns and political issues at an intense state across the globe, you never know when something can happen.
If you’re registered with your government, they’ll be able to contact you to help during an emergency.
If you are personally facing an emergency away from home, registering can expedite the process of seeking help.
Once you’ve registered with your government, they’ll already know many personal details and have contact information for you so you can solve problems and seek help a little faster.
I want to make it clear that I rarely rely solely on government warnings when I decide where to travel, but in the end, if you find yourself in an emergency and need help from your government, they’re less likely to help you in a place that they warn against travelling, or if they don’t know where you are.
Travel News of the Week 🗞️
The Mexican government and cartel clashed this week after a cartel kingpin was killed. It had immediate impacts on the state of Jalisco, its inhabitants and visitors. It seems like things are calming down now, but here’s a helpful overview if you’re planning on visiting soon.
The Canada to UK ETA requirement is now in effect. As of February 25 2026, Canadians must obtain an ETA before short-term travel to the UK.
Taiwan sees 109% domestic travel spike during Lunar New Year. Visitor numbers to the country surged to new highs during the holiday period.
And that’s it for this week! Stay tuned for next week’s edition.
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Until next week!
🫶 Bri