One Montevallo, We’re better together.

Join us in building unity through storytelling.

The Montevallo Legacy Project finds, preserves, and shares stories of our town’s past. Our mission is to uncover legacies that light the way to a more promising future for Montevallo citizens. We believe in the transformative power of storytelling. We invite others to join us in the effort of creating narratives that imagine and foster a more inclusive future for members of all communities.

Untold Stories of Black Montevallo

Stories Our Own Way

NAACP/MLP Scholarship

African American Heritage Trail

Latest News

Untold Stories

Interpretations

Interpretations
The Soul of the Garden
Kathy King
The Soul of the Garden
Kathy King

Discover the profound significance of Montevallo's Memorial Garden, established in honor of two unidentified victims of an 1889 lynching. This garden, part of EJI's historical marker project, is a place of remembrance, healing, and reconciliation, reflecting on the racial injustices of the past and offering hope for a more just future.

Kathy King
Four Years On: the EJI Lynching Marker Revisited
Kathy King
Four Years On: the EJI Lynching Marker Revisited
Kathy King

Four years ago the Montevallo Remembrance Project, a citizen's coalition, partnered with the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery to bring a commemorative lynching marker to town. One of the coalition’s co-leaders reflects on the meaning of the marker, then and now.

Kathy King
Montevallo needs to change, or it is going to die
Josie Daisy
Montevallo needs to change, or it is going to die
Josie Daisy

After returning from an enlightening conference on queer history from the south, MLP Board of Director Josie Daisy expresses her frustration with Montevallo’s lack of vision for an inclusive future.

Josie Daisy
UM students reckon with untold stories of enslaved people on campus
Veronica Kloss
UM students reckon with untold stories of enslaved people on campus
Veronica Kloss

Students in the Fall 2023 Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies course at UM were challenged to write about the inherited narratives around King House that left out the enslaved people who built it. MLP Intern and student Veronica Kloss looks at this obscured history and proposes community collaboration in a project of remembrance.

Veronica Kloss
The whitewashing of King House: A disclaimer 
Cady Inabinett
The whitewashing of King House: A disclaimer 
Cady Inabinett

Editor in chief of The Alabamian, Cady Inabenett, informs and reflects on the harmful stories around UM’s King House.

Cady Inabinett
Dr. Gregory Samuels Urges Honest Reckoning with America's Racial Past at Montevallo Lynching Marker Event
Dr. Gregory Samuels
Dr. Gregory Samuels Urges Honest Reckoning with America's Racial Past at Montevallo Lynching Marker Event
Dr. Gregory Samuels

Dr. Gregory Samuels is Associate Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Montevallo and former Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer. He spoke on Feb 16, 2023, to visitors from Los Angeles at the EJI lynching marker on Montevallo's Main Street.

Dr. Gregory Samuels

Montevallo African American Heritage Trail

Learn more about Montevallo’s African American history by following the African American Heritage Trail, organized in collaboration with the MLP and Montevallo Historic Preservation Commission. As locations for the Heritage Trail are approved and installed, the MLP is developing a digital trail containing expanded interpretation of Montevallo’s history.

Click here to learn more

Ward Chapel AME Church

Featured Location

Members of Montevallo's Ward Chapel A.M.E Church, tucked behind city hall on West Street, are rightly proud of their rich history. Last year the church celebrated 150 years of service to the community. Ward Chapel is Montevallo's oldest historically Black church and one of the fifteen oldest A.M.E. churches in the state.

Help recover and preserve our history, our community, and our legacy.

Click the button below to learn all the ways to support our story sharing efforts and Montevallo history.