Memphis: Remembering the Messenger (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.)

Dreaming in Memphis…

Memphis (Enduring and Beautiful).

Memphis is the place where rock was born and Martin Luther King Jr., was killed. It’s full of contradictions, abject poverty, and riches that only music can provide.

Shawn Amos

Dr. King’s place of assassination brought his whole life full circle for me.

Like many, (most notably Mrs. King) I had mixed emotions about the Lorraine Motel being converted into the National Civil Rights Museum.

…the experience at the Lorraine has stayed with me and I imagine it always will.

Panama Jackson, Journalist, 2019

I must confess when I heard of plans to create this memorial, I was skeptical.The Lorraine Motel, after all, represented a personal tragedy for my family and me as well as our nation. But I’d like to commend you…who have transformed the Lorraine Motel into something very, very positive that future generations can be proud of.The National Civil Right Museum offers further proof that bullets and violence and intimidation cannot kill our dream.

Corretta Scott King

It was a dream of mine to visit all of the major memorials in honor of Dr. King.

His larger-than-life monument in D.C. was my first visit. Then last year, I made it a point to visit where he was born and buried: Atlanta.

I toured (if that mundane description could be used) his childhood home, grave, and Ebenezer Baptist Church grounds.

One MLK Weekend, I happened to be in Chicago and the Dusable Museum had a beautiful tribute in his honor.

His 93rd birthday led me to his final stop in Memphis.

Play it Real Pretty…

There were so many critical details about April 4, 1968, that were made plain through this experience.

The final part of the museum was a play-by-play of Dr. King’s entire day.

It felt so intimate. Unintrusive, despite the millions of visitors who took the same passage.

I was standing where he stood. Where his blood was shed and he probably took his final breaths.

After all of the emotional aspects of the Atlantic slave trade and a visit to 1960’s Jim Crow America, I wept silently on a bench that led to room 306.

Once I composed myself, I stood in the line for my turn and the tears kept falling.

I didn’t know that Dr. King’s last request and possible last words were for a member of the Chicago’s Operation Breadbasket Orchestra to play his favorite hymn ‘Precious Lord, Take my Hand’ at the sanitation worker’s rally a few days away.

DID YOU KNOW?

*Loree Bailey, co-owner of Lorraine Motel suffered a stroke and died 5 days after hearing about Dr. King’s death. *The last resident of the motel was forced out and protests the museum to thos day

That morning, Dr. King had a pillow fight with his brother. All normal things…yet pure evil crouched near.

Memphis, I’m Going Up Beyonder…

Just like on my visit, a storm threatened the area with wind and rain.

The great orator marveled at the crowd despite the weather and proceeded to give the final speech of his life “Mountaintop”.

Biblically, the mountain represented a place where you sought God.

His experience as a Black man in America took place in the valley, so ascending to any high place whether literally or figuratively (life or death) would only mean victory.

I learned that a greater number of African slaves were sent to the Caribbean than America. I always thought the opposite.

At the front of the museum is a Gandi exhibit. I blogged previously about Dr. King modeling himself after Gandi’s non-violent stance.

Behind Every Great Man…

There was an area dedicated to the Montgomery Bus boycott with a tribute to Rosa Parks. Of course, the sanitation worker’s strike could not be left out.

When I came to Memphis to join the march along with Mrs.King, I could not even think about coming to this site. I did not want to see the place where he lost his life. But today I’m very happy and proud to be here and be part of this museum.

Rosa Parks

Four days after burying her husband and children’s father, Mrs. King marched in the sanitation worker’s strike.

This was the reason for Dr. King’s fateful visit to Memphis.

What a brave and amazing woman!

If you’re not too overwhelmed, cross the street to the boarding house turned Legacy Museum. You get the chilling view of the assassin lying in wait.

I wish I could conjure up Dr. King’s eloquence right now.

I’m sitting on a plane 30K feet in the air. It’s #MLKDAY2022, and I just feel sad…in mourning. A state Black people know all too well!

We’ve come so far…yet not far enough!

This is a place where we may have lost a King, but we found our soul.

Michaela Angela Davis

~Poof…Bee Gone

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