June 2

National Civil Right Museum,

 Memphis, TN

The exhibits at the National Civil Rights Museum trace the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the US from the 17^th century to the present.

The museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

There are many multi-media and interactive exhibits, including numerous short movies. 

In 2016, the museum became a Smithsonian Affiliate museum.

In 1945, Walter Bailey purchased the former Marquette Hotel and renamed it for his wife Loree and the song “Sweet Lorraine.”

Bailey operated the motel as an upscale lodging catering to black clientele during the segregation era. 

Following the assassination of MLK, Bailey withdrew Room 306 (where King died) and the adjoining room 307 from use. 

 

 Bailey’s wife suffered a stroke hours after the assassination and died five days later. 

In 1982 the motel went into foreclosure and was purchased by the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation (later named the Lorraine Civil Right Museum Foundation).

 

 

The museum was dedicated on July 4, 1991.   In 2012, the museum underwent a $27.5 million renovation. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Many exhibits now feature “listening stations” with headphones and more than 40 new short films throughout the museum also enhance the effect of the exhibits. 

 

The site includes the museum, the Lorraine Motel, and associated buildings.  It also includes the Young and Morrow Building where James Earl Ray initially confessed (and later recanted) to shooting King.    

The complex also includes Canipe’s Amusement Store next to the rooming house where the murder weapon with Ray’s fingerprints was found.

 

 

A number of vehicles of historic value are on exhibit including an international Harvester garbage truck in an exhibit of the 1968 Memphis sanitation strike that brought MLK to Memphis, James Earl Ray’s Ford Mustang, a 1968 Cadillac and 1959 Dodge parked outside the motel, a re-creation of the burned shell of a Greyhound bus used by Freedom Riders, and a bus representative of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Unfortunately, we only allowed three hours for touring the museum (should have planned on at least five hours).  We had tickets for a riverboat cruise so when I noticed we were running late we ended up rushing through portions of the museum. 

When we boarded the Island Queen at 4:30 it was still over 90 degrees so we were happy to have found seats on the second level where we had some shade. 

 

The ride lasted approximately and hour and a half during which we were entertained by a guide reciting some historic facts and telling humorous stories and some tall tales about Memphis and the Mississippi.