The most important place we wanted to visit on our free day in Memphis was The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel - the site of the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr on 4 April 1968. (Says Sue and Brian)
We took the replacement trolley shuttle bus down there & came across a lady who said she was the last person to be evicted from the Lorraine Hotel. This was because the State was going to turn the building into the museum.
Standing in line for the security check & tickets we discussed how familiar the scene looked as we have seen these images so many times since that tragic day. This really is history in our life time.
You start with an art gallery then into a 12 minute film about the Civil Rights movement. We were welcomed by a young guide singing a slave holler song. After the film it was a self guided tour with so much to see. The multiple galleries covered in great detail all aspects of civil rights over the centuries.
After going through the hotel rooms where Dr King was staying before he made his fateful appearance on to the balcony we then went across the road to the building & the reconstructed bathroom from which the shot was fired.
This is one of the best arranged museums we have experienced as each exhibit flows on to the next so it was just about impossible to miss anything.
We spent 3.5 hours there & we still had to rush towards the end as it was coming up to closing time.
(Written by Sue and Brian: Kiwi.Brit, other people on our Great Train Journey through the Southern States of America.)
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