We thought that the most reverent thing we could do on the Sabbath on our Memphis trip was to visit a museum, so we headed to the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis where we had been the night before. The museum was built onto the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
MLK and a group of others were getting ready to go to a dinner when MLK went outside his room (#306). Everyone heard the shot and thought it was a car backfiring until they saw MLK laying on the ground. They actually removed the blood-stained portion of the cement on the balcony. The wreath has been there since 1968.
There was SO . . . MUCH . . . INFORMATION!!!! I think we had planned on being there for an hour, but after 2 1/2 hours, the announcement over the loudspeaker said we only had 55 minutes until it closed . . . we were barely halfway through! We did the audio tour, but there was also so much to read in the exhibits. As we rushed through the last part of the museum because we were out of time, we found out that the building across the street where James Earl Ray killed MLK was also part of the museum. We were able to visit the other museum on Monday morning before my flight left. Still, just so much information, we had to rush through the exhibits.
This quote is acroos the street from the Lorraine Hotel and behind it is actually the door to the second museum.
We weren't allowed to have the camera in the museums, so I don't have any pictures of the inside. But being in the actual area where someone was killed made for a very solemn experience.
This was another hotel back in 1968, but now it's the second part of the museum which is where James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King from his bathroom window.
We thought that the most reverent thing we could do on the Sabbath on our Memphis trip was to visit a museum, so we headed to the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis where we had been the night before. The museum was built onto the Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
MLK and a group of others were getting ready to go to a dinner when MLK went outside his room (#306). Everyone heard the shot and thought it was a car backfiring until they saw MLK laying on the ground. They actually removed the blood-stained portion of the cement on the balcony. The wreath has been there since 1968.
There was SO . . . MUCH . . . INFORMATION!!!! I think we had planned on being there for an hour, but after 2 1/2 hours, the announcement over the loudspeaker said we only had 55 minutes until it closed . . . we were barely halfway through! We did the audio tour, but there was also so much to read in the exhibits. As we rushed through the last part of the museum because we were out of time, we found out that the building across the street where James Earl Ray killed MLK was also part of the museum. We were able to visit the other museum on Monday morning before my flight left. Still, just so much information, we had to rush through the exhibits.
This quote is acroos the street from the Lorraine Hotel and behind it is actually the door to the second museum.
We weren't allowed to have the camera in the museums, so I don't have any pictures of the inside. But being in the actual area where someone was killed made for a very solemn experience.
This was another hotel back in 1968, but now it's the second part of the museum which is where James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King from his bathroom window.
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