America's first national memorial dedicated to victims of lynching will open in Montgomery early next year.

The Equal Justice Initiative will celebrate the opening of the memorial and new museum dedicated to slavery on April 26, 2018. The National Memorial for Peace and Justice will acknowledge an era of racial terror in the United States when thousands of African Americans were lynched and publicly tortured, sometimes in the presence of thousands of people, EJI said.

The memorial will feature hundreds of 6-foot tall, corten steel monuments aligned in a structure that sits above the city of Montgomery. Also included in the memorial will be sculptures from African and African American artists that explore slavery, segregation, and contemporary issues of racial inequality.

According to EJI, the memorial park will include a monument for every county in America where a racial terror lynching took place that can be claimed by community groups and installed locally.

The lynching memorial is under construction in Montgomery's oldest community Cottage Hill in west Montgomery. The property overlooks downtown.

A few blocks away from the memorial, EJI will open The Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration, which explores slavery, lynching, segregation, and mass incarceration in America on a site where enslaved people were once warehoused.

The museum will be located at EJI's offices on Commerce Street in downtown Montgomery.

Located a few steps away from what was once one of the most prominent slave markets in America, and from a port and rail station that trafficked thousands of enslaved black people in the mid-19th century, the new narrative museum will offer ground-breaking, interactive content that takes visitors on a journey through our nation's difficult past, according to EJI.

Sculpture, fine art, and technology will be combined with original research and multi-media presentations to create a unique cultural experience.

EJI said the museum and memorial are part of the organization's work to advance truth and reconciliation around race in America and to more honestly confront the legacy of slavery, lynching, and segregation.

"Our nation's history of racial injustice casts a shadow across the American landscape," EJI Director Bryan Stevenson said. "This shadow cannot be lifted until we shine the light of truth on the destructive violence that shaped our nation, traumatized people of color, and compromised our commitment to the rule of law and to equal justice."

From April 26-29, EJI is expecting thousands of visitors to travel to Montgomery to celebrate the launch of the memorial and museum. Educational panels and presentations from educational panels and presentations from leading national figures, performances and concerts from acclaimed recording artists and a large opening ceremony.

For more information and tickets to the museum and memorial click here.