Court Square Fountain - The Market at the Heart of Town

Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)

A stop on Montgomery: Legacy and Civil Rights Road, a free self-guided tour.

The fountain in front of you, topped by a statue of Hebe, the Greek goddess of youth, was set up in 1885 over an artesian well that Native people used long before Montgomery existed. For decades before that, this square was the center of the city's slave trade.

Enslaved people of all ages were auctioned here in public, alongside land and livestock. Sale notices listed a first name, an approximate age, skills, complexion and price, and surnames often changed with each sale. By 1859 the city had seven auctioneers and four slave depots, several of them on Market Street, the avenue now called Dexter. Families were separated on this ground.

The square holds later history too. Across the street, Rosa Parks boarded her bus home in December 1955, and a statue of her by Clydetta Fulmer now stands near that spot. Read the two-sided state marker beside the fountain, then look for EJI's markers on Commerce Street, which trace the trade up from the river.

Getting here: Ride the shuttle back toward downtown, or walk about 25 minutes south along North Court Street to the fountain where Court Street, Commerce Street and Dexter Avenue meet.

Did you know?: The other side of the fountain's marker tells of New Year's Day 1866, when formerly enslaved people led Montgomery's first Emancipation Proclamation celebration, with a parade that formed on Commerce Street.

Photo op: Stand on the Dexter Avenue side of the square to frame the fountain with the Capitol dome rising at the far end of the avenue.

More on Wikipedia: Court Square Fountain · Rosa Parks · Montgomery, Alabama

Court Square Fountain - The Market at the Heart of Town

Stops on this tour