“There lived…a people who had the moral courage to stand up for their rights and thereby they injected a new meaning into the veins of history and of civilization.”

- Dr. Marin Luther King Jr., December 5, 1955

I was reminded this Martin Luther King Jr. Day of my recent visit to Memphis, TN and the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. If you ever have the opportunity, I encourage you to go.

The museum, built in and around the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated April 4, 1968, offers a moving testimonial to the American Civil Rights Movement from slavery to 1968, culminating at Rooms 306 and 307, where Dr. King spent his final hours.

Names, locations and events that have been on the periphery of my consciousness, introduced through incomplete, white-washed American History classes, were brought into razor sharp clarity through museum’s multi-sensory exhibits.

A dynamic blend of oral histories, video recordings, newscasts, artifacts, and life-size interactive exhibits – like boarding the bus and sitting with Rosa Parks while hearing the bus driver, amidst jeers, to move or the police would be called – all seamlessly take visitors through the visceral experience and history of the civil rights movement. Photo - Rosa Parks on Bus taken by Alicia during her 2017 visit to the museum.

We witnessed the training for students engaged in non-violent protests, preparing them to endure riots of slur-slinging crowds; walked by the husk of a burned and crumpled bus ridden by Freedom Riders; and listened in as Dr. King and President Johnson worked on passing the Voting Rights Act in 1965. No amount of foreshadowing could protect peaceful protesters who succumbed during the march from Selma to Birmingham and the Bloody Sunday attack. The exhibits – and experiences – are too many to fully recount.

Following the museum’s virtual steps taken by blacks in America and the rise of the American Civil Rights movement both underscore how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go. This is perhaps most poignantly illustrated in where the tour ends: Rooms 306 and 307, where Dr. King spent his final hours, just inside the balcony upon which he was shot. There’s food from room service still on plates, cigarettes in an ashtray, a cup of coffee half-full. The bed covers are slightly rumpled – Dr. King and his brother, A.D. King had been telling jokes and enjoying an impromptu pillow fight during the day. The scene is as though they have just stepped out for a moment, soon to resume the important work at hand.

I am heartened by and humbly thank the many individuals and organizations that work tirelessly to continue fighting the good fight in the quest for racial equality and justice for all.

Erika

Photos: Lorraine Motel sign; mural adjacent to the museum; the balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was shot. Taken by Erika during her visit.

The National Civil Rights Museum: A living reminder