I drove another 375 miles towards home today, arriving in Smyrna, TN which is near Nashville. On the way my only stop was at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.

I spent a couple of days in Memphis about 10 years ago and visited Beale St., Graceland and the museum then. Beale St. seemed like a smaller, run down version of Bourbon St. in New Orleans and Graceland was fun to do but I wouldn’t bother again. However, the Civil Rights Museum was a great experience and, since I was passing through anyway, made a great stop to break up the journey.

The museum is housed in two main buildings, the former Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, was assassinated and the  Bessie Brewer boarding house where James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot. The Lorraine Motel houses exhibits on slavery, constitutional and legal equality, the civil rights movement and the events in Memphis. The boarding house houses exhibits on the legacy of the movement and Dr. king as well as the investigation of the assassination. The museum has recently undergone a 27 million dollar upgrade and  has a new introductory film that I hated but the actual exhibits and the emotion of seeing Dr. King’s motel room and the room that James Earl Ray fired from are very powerful.

The drive was uneventful and can be seen here along with the map.

At the time of Dr. King’s assassination the Lorraine Motel was an upscale lodging that catered to black guests. Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles were among many high profile guests. After the assassination the owner preserved rooms 306 and 307 (used by King) and converted to rest into low income single occupancy rooms in honor of King. It was closed in1988 to create the museum.

This is room 306, where Dr. King was shot (sorry about the reflections).
This is the view from the window of the boarding house across the street where Ray rented his room.

The last low income resident of the Lorraine Motel had to be forcibly evicted and has maintained a protest vigil against the museum for almost 30 years. She claims that Dr. King would not have wanted a lavish museum in his honor but would want the building to serve the poor and disenfranchised.