Martin Luther King's Dream

Day 25

On the road by 7:30 this morning, stopping for breakfast before arriving at the Lorraine Motel/National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis.  The Lorraine is where Dr. Martin Luther King was murdered on April 4, 1968.  

The museum was built around the motel.  The exterior of the motel and the two rooms that Dr. King and his associates occupied are exactly like they were that evening.  The photos of Dr. King on the motel’s balcony with his associates, and then  all of his associates pointing toward the shooter are so well known that it was in some ways creepy to see this spot in person.  

The museum was incredibly moving, and after spending two hours looking at all the exhibits, photos, and video, it’s hard not to be brought to tears.  Beyond the details of Dr. King’s visit to Memphis to support the local sanitation workers strike, the museum covers the civil rights struggle in the US since Africans were first brought to our shores as slaves.  Videos of civil rights activists on the buses of Montgomery and at the lunch counters of Woolworths in Nashville are so moving as you witness the violence these passive protesters sustained from the white citizens of these cities.

One of the more moving speeches, other than those by Dr. King, was by Robert Kennedy the night of King’s assassination.  Kennedy was delivering campaign speech when he was handed a note about King’s death.  He immediately shared it with the audience.  His eloquence was remarkable; not written by a speech writer and not displayed on a teleprompter.

The museum was very crowded, students of all ages were everywhere. 

Both Joni and I were very heartened to see four high school girls, two black and two white, who were obviously good friends, talking back and forth to each other as they moved through the museum.  Hopefully they prove that Dr. King’s dream is coming true.

The rest of the day was spent driving north to St. Louis where I will be attending my 50^thhigh school reunion.  Along the way we stopped in St. Genevieve, Missouri, which is the oldest settlement in the US west of the Mississippi.  It’s not much more than one hour’s drive south of St. Louis.  I had never been there, but my parents loved to go their for a day trip, so I felt obligated to check it out, however, briefly.  It’s a small town, but well preserved…definitely worth the detour.