The National Museum of Civil Rights, Memphis

Downtown Memphis is a work in progress. The Museum is in a neighborhood with dilapidated buildings interspersed with small businesses and restaurants. The museum, and the site of Martin Luther King Jr’s assassination is located at the preserved motel and balcony where the civil right’s leader was shot and killed. The balcony has a wreath in front of room 306, and the imagery evokes the news reels we all watched of that horrific event. 

Visitors take photos in front of the Motel sign, and a woman has set up a protest spot across the street that says 30 years, 308 days (as of today). She is convinced that the museum dishonors King’s memory. The museum exhibit is honoring the 50 years since MLK Jr’s assassination. Perhaps it was the misty cold day. Perhaps it was the current political climate. Perhaps it was the somber effect of the scene of the death of not only the leader of the Civil Rights movement, but the forward momentum of the movement itself. 

50 years since his death. 50 years. His dream is still out there. It is up to us to make it come true.

Inspired by Little Milton’s album “Think Of Me”

This was one of the few hotels in the Memphis area that was listed in the Green Book.