Alabama State Capitol Steps

Montgomery calls itself, uneasily, the Cradle of the Confederacy, and this hilltop is why. In February 1861, delegates from the seceding Southern states met in Montgomery, formed the Confederate States of America, and chose Jefferson Davis as its president. On February 18, Davis stood on the capitol portico and took his oath of office before a crowd, and Montgomery served briefly as the Confederate capital before the seat of government moved to Richmond, Virginia.

The building itself, a Greek Revival structure completed in 1851 after fire destroyed an earlier capitol, has been in use ever since. A bronze star embedded in the portico floor marks the spot where Davis stood. For visitors from every background, the site is a stark reminder of how directly Alabama's grand public architecture is bound up with the history of slavery and the war fought over it.

A century later the same steps witnessed a very different scene. In early 1965 the campaign for Black voting rights in Alabama had turned deadly, and on March 7, marchers crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma were beaten by state troopers in an assault broadcast across the nation as Bloody Sunday. Under federal protection, activists set out again, walking the roughly fifty miles from Selma to Montgomery over several days.

On March 25, 1965, some twenty-five thousand people gathered at the foot of the capitol, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from a platform before the steps. "How long? Not long," he told the crowd, "because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." Within months Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. The march that ended on these steps is one of the decisive events of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Alabama State Capitol is a National Historic Landmark and still houses the offices of the governor and other state officials. Its central dome, columned porticoes, and spiral staircases inside are open to visitors during business hours, and the rotunda holds murals of state history. From the top of the steps, Dexter Avenue runs straight downhill through the heart of old Montgomery.

The grounds hold a dense cluster of monuments reflecting Alabama's layered past, including memorials to various eras and figures. Just a block down the avenue stands Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, where Dr. King served as pastor, so the walk between the two ties the capitol's two histories together in a few short blocks.

The capitol steps are one node in a city dense with history. Within walking distance are the Rosa Parks Museum, near where she was arrested in 1955 and set off the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and the Civil Rights Memorial designed by Maya Lin. A short drive away, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Legacy Museum confront the history of slavery, lynching, and mass incarceration.

Taken together, these sites make Montgomery one of the most important places in the country to grapple with American history honestly. The capitol steps sit at the center of it, a single vantage point from which you can see both how far the nation had to come and, at least in one photographed afternoon in 1965, how far it managed to travel.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.