National Civil Rights Musuem
DISCLAIMER- I love history, especially black history. I was raised between DC and Baltimore and there is a lot of Afro-centric influence in all aspects of life and education there. Festivals, education/schools and museums.
Even before coming down here I wanted to go to the National Civil Rights Museum. I knew about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but then who doesn’t? But I wanted to know more, I wanted to see the exact place where his assassination happened. So I went on Saturday afternoon with my friend from Howard University who lives in Memphis. We went in at 2:14 pm and left at 5:27 pm and we talked about the museum and its exhibits all the way home. The museum was broken down into different sections that span Black and African-American history from Slavery to the Assassination of MLK, Jr. The exhibits that I especially liked were The Civil War, Migration, Jim Crow Laws, Booker T Washington, Little Rock Nine, Montgomery Bus Boycott (where we were able to sit on a simulation bus with Rosa Parks), Student Sit-Ins, Project C Birmingham, The March on Washington (of which I was fortunate to be in DC and attend the 40th Anniversary of the March in August 2003), The People of Memphis, Rooms 306 & 307 and the boarding house across the street from the Lorraine where his killer stayed and shot him from. When going through the exhibit of Rooms 306 & 307 where Dr. King stayed at in the Lorraine Hotel I almost cried. While reading the step by step chronology of what was going on leading up to his assassination I could do nothing but picture it and him actually there. To know that I was standing right there was a privilege. I even was able to look over the balcony where he stood and saw his car (I model of his car) SIDENOTE- I saw a paper that had all the motels that blacks could stay in during the Jim Crow Law time and the Lorraine Hotel was one of them. Like on this piece of paper, it had the name of the motel, the city, a phone number and the street address.
I know I will be going back in the near future. Anybody want to join me?
Even before coming down here I wanted to go to the National Civil Rights Museum. I knew about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. but then who doesn’t? But I wanted to know more, I wanted to see the exact place where his assassination happened. So I went on Saturday afternoon with my friend from Howard University who lives in Memphis. We went in at 2:14 pm and left at 5:27 pm and we talked about the museum and its exhibits all the way home. The museum was broken down into different sections that span Black and African-American history from Slavery to the Assassination of MLK, Jr. The exhibits that I especially liked were The Civil War, Migration, Jim Crow Laws, Booker T Washington, Little Rock Nine, Montgomery Bus Boycott (where we were able to sit on a simulation bus with Rosa Parks), Student Sit-Ins, Project C Birmingham, The March on Washington (of which I was fortunate to be in DC and attend the 40th Anniversary of the March in August 2003), The People of Memphis, Rooms 306 & 307 and the boarding house across the street from the Lorraine where his killer stayed and shot him from. When going through the exhibit of Rooms 306 & 307 where Dr. King stayed at in the Lorraine Hotel I almost cried. While reading the step by step chronology of what was going on leading up to his assassination I could do nothing but picture it and him actually there. To know that I was standing right there was a privilege. I even was able to look over the balcony where he stood and saw his car (I model of his car) SIDENOTE- I saw a paper that had all the motels that blacks could stay in during the Jim Crow Law time and the Lorraine Hotel was one of them. Like on this piece of paper, it had the name of the motel, the city, a phone number and the street address.
I know I will be going back in the near future. Anybody want to join me?
posted by Keila S. @ 11:40 PM
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