Rachael and I parted ways this morning, she back to Georgia, and I on to Tennessee.
Memphis: An amazing city! It is thriving with life, especially along Beale Street. It is, of course, the music capital of the world. Nonetheless, I was on a mission..... the National Civil Rights Museum.
Fittingly, the museum is located at the Lorraine Hotel. It was on the balcony outside room 306 that Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot by James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from a Missouri prison, on April 4, 1968. The hotel was owned and operated by a colored couple, and it was the hotel always chosen by the leaders of the movement such as King, Ralph Abernathy, and the rest of the SCLC.
Some quick background as to why King was there on that fateful day. The sanitation workers of Memphis were all black. They were paid between 68 and 9o cents an hour. These wages qualified them for welfare. They had no benefits, and the workers could neither afford the medical care often required due to the hazardous conditions of their jobs nor funerals. Each day the workers had to carry the 50 gallon garbage barrels from alleys, buildings, and garages to their trucks. It was common for these men to find maggots in their clothing that had fallen off the garbage barrels. The trucks malfunctioned frequently, often causing injuries. With the death of two workers in February of 1968 after being crushed in their garbage truck when it malfunctioned unexpectedly, 1300 workers went on strike. Their strike was most notably signifed by their simple choice of sign: "I Am A Man."
King was invited to come lead a march in Memphis. The workers had been on strike for over a month by then, and King and the other leaders saw this as the perfect springboard to call attention to the next big march that King was planning in D.C. This massive march was to be called the "Poor People's March," and it was going to call upon the government to raise minorities out of poverty and create more equal economic rights for them. The sanitation workers were an excellent example of that very poor person - the hard-working, underpaid, upstanding citizen- for which King was fighting. Unfortunately, the first march King led in late March ended in violence. Some of the media spun this as a failure for the movement, and it disappointed King very much. He knew he had to plan, and execute, a peaceful march again the following week.
King arrived in Memphis on April 3rd, delayed a bit by a bomb threat to his plane. It became known that there was a price on his head. An offer was out there that $50,000 would be paid to the person who makes sure King never got to D.C. for his march. Nonetheless, King marched on. That night, there was to be a meeting at Reverend Billy Kyles' church. King stayed at the hotel to work on plans for the D.C. march. It was storming, and he believed few would attend anyway. He was wrong; the church was full of people waiting...for him. So, he was called to the church. It was there that King gave his last speech. This speech is known as "The Mountaintop Speech." He had no notes; he simply yet powerfully spoke from his heart. He was jumpy that night, and it was the only time he spoke of death. He told the people what he wanted his funeral to be like. He also told them that he "may" not reach the promised land with them but that they would still get there. The speech ended with him saying, "I am not afraid of any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" As Kyles put it, "he preached himself through his fear of death."
The next day, King was uplifted again and ready for the march the following day. He and the other leaders were to have dinner at Kyles' house that night. Kyles came to get him shortly after 5 p.m. They talked and laughed in room 306 for a while. A little after 5:45 King and Kyles stepped out onto the balcony. The other leaders (except Abernathy who was still in the room) were in the parking lot below waiting by the limo. King leaned over the railing to harass Jesse Jackson for not being properly dressed and asked Ben Branch if he would please sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" that night. As Kyles headed to the stairs, King turned back to the room to check on Abernathy, and then as he turned back around the shot rang out. Only one shot was fired. The bullet was called a dum dum bullet, which meant it mushroomed once it hit its target. King was shot in the chest, but about half of his face was blown apart and his spine was severed. The hotel owner's wife ran out, saw King down, and immediately had a heart attack. She died within days. King said nothing; he simply crushed his cigarette in his fist. The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes, and he was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital. Kyles struggled with being the only one on the balcony with King (the shot happened after Kyles started walking away). He remarked, "Crucifixions have to have witnesses. That's why I was there. You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream." Although there was some looting and rioting that night, the sanitation workers did get higher wages.
So, the museum starts in what was the ground floor of the hotel. It starts with a video of the shooting, but then it describes the entire Civil Rights Movement from Reconstruction through modern-day. Some interesting things I noted: Justice John Harlan was the only Southerner on the bench when the Court decided the Plessy case in 1896. He was the only dissenter, writing, "The Constitution is color-blind." The NAACP grew from a conference to protest a lynching and race riot in Springfield, Illinois. The last of the Scottsboro boys was released in 1950, spending 19 years in prison although the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1935. The first freedom ride was actually in 1947. In 1896, nearly 30 states had some form of racial segregation. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to the states regarding school segregation. A psychologist testified in the Brown case as to the damaging effects of discrimination on children. He apparently used dolls ("which doll is the good doll?") to test these effects on kids. Brown II in 1955 said the states needed to integrate "with all deliberate speed." This was changed in late 1960s to "at once." By 1961, 70,000 students had taken part in sit-ins, with 3600 being arrested. The leaders of the movement had training sessions so young people knew how to respond nonviolently to abuse and slander. They also had rules (drafted by the Nashville Nonviolent Movement). Mississippi governor Ross Barnett was the first governor to be found guilty of contempt of court by a federal court. This was in 1962 when he refused to allow James Meredith into Univ. of Miss. When Meredith did finally graduate in 1963, he wore one of the segregationists' buttons that read "Never" upside down on his robe. If shop owners in Birmingham removed the "Whites Only" signs from their stores, they were cited by Bull Connor for "violations of the sanitary code." He said, "Damn the law. Down here, I am the law." During the Birmingham children's march on May 6th, 10 youth were arrested every minute for a two hour stretch. The city had nowhere to put them or could handle the numbers. King's family actually lived in a ghetto in the section of Lawndale in Chicago for almost a year from '65 to '66 to highlight the plight of the poor. After these exhibits, you can see into room 306 as it was when King was shot. The museum removed room 307 and created a viewing area there.
The museum ends as you cross the street into the boardinghouse where James Earl Ray stayed. His actual room and the bathroom from where he shot still stand. The exhibits have been arranged around these areas. The exhibits describe the 65 day manhunt, his capture, the investigation, the evidence, and the trial. On display are the rifle he used, the bullet taken from King's body, the actual autopsy report on King, the bullets and other items left behind by Ray, and even some of his hair that was used to identify him. The final exhibit on the second floor describes the questions that still linger: Was it a conspiracy? Did the FBI or other agency cover it up or help fund the assassination (Ray had $9000 for his mission)? Were there connections to organized crime? The final decision by Congress in 2000 was that James Earl Ray did act alone - case closed. There are exhibits to end the tour depicting others that have been assassinated for their pursuit for civil rights and the social, political, and economic changes for minorities since the 60's. Today, there are 2 billion people still living under totalitarian regimes with limited rights. So, the march continues....
Other than Beale Street and wandering downtown, my other stop in Memphis was Slavehaven, a house on the underground railroad. What makes this house so special is that it was located right in the middle of strong slavery enthusiasts. It belonged to a German immigrant who ran the only stockyards in Memphis. Slaves went through a trapdoor on the back porch, crawled under the foundation of the house, went through a hole into the basement, and then crawled through a tunnel to the Mississippi River. Most of these slaves came from Arkansas or Mississippi, reading the codes in quilts along the way. Most runaway slaves had rewards of $50 to $100 for their capture. Harriet Tubman's price was $40,000! I also learned that closets were taxed as extra rooms (not really pertinent), that slaves started working in the fields at age 5, that slave owners used slave boys on which to put their feet to keep warm, and one slave had himself mailed to Philadelphia, thus spending 27 hours in a box!
I am writing this from Little Rock, Arkansas, which will conclude my journey...
Memphis: An amazing city! It is thriving with life, especially along Beale Street. It is, of course, the music capital of the world. Nonetheless, I was on a mission..... the National Civil Rights Museum.
Fittingly, the museum is located at the Lorraine Hotel. It was on the balcony outside room 306 that Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot by James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from a Missouri prison, on April 4, 1968. The hotel was owned and operated by a colored couple, and it was the hotel always chosen by the leaders of the movement such as King, Ralph Abernathy, and the rest of the SCLC.
Some quick background as to why King was there on that fateful day. The sanitation workers of Memphis were all black. They were paid between 68 and 9o cents an hour. These wages qualified them for welfare. They had no benefits, and the workers could neither afford the medical care often required due to the hazardous conditions of their jobs nor funerals. Each day the workers had to carry the 50 gallon garbage barrels from alleys, buildings, and garages to their trucks. It was common for these men to find maggots in their clothing that had fallen off the garbage barrels. The trucks malfunctioned frequently, often causing injuries. With the death of two workers in February of 1968 after being crushed in their garbage truck when it malfunctioned unexpectedly, 1300 workers went on strike. Their strike was most notably signifed by their simple choice of sign: "I Am A Man."
King was invited to come lead a march in Memphis. The workers had been on strike for over a month by then, and King and the other leaders saw this as the perfect springboard to call attention to the next big march that King was planning in D.C. This massive march was to be called the "Poor People's March," and it was going to call upon the government to raise minorities out of poverty and create more equal economic rights for them. The sanitation workers were an excellent example of that very poor person - the hard-working, underpaid, upstanding citizen- for which King was fighting. Unfortunately, the first march King led in late March ended in violence. Some of the media spun this as a failure for the movement, and it disappointed King very much. He knew he had to plan, and execute, a peaceful march again the following week.
King arrived in Memphis on April 3rd, delayed a bit by a bomb threat to his plane. It became known that there was a price on his head. An offer was out there that $50,000 would be paid to the person who makes sure King never got to D.C. for his march. Nonetheless, King marched on. That night, there was to be a meeting at Reverend Billy Kyles' church. King stayed at the hotel to work on plans for the D.C. march. It was storming, and he believed few would attend anyway. He was wrong; the church was full of people waiting...for him. So, he was called to the church. It was there that King gave his last speech. This speech is known as "The Mountaintop Speech." He had no notes; he simply yet powerfully spoke from his heart. He was jumpy that night, and it was the only time he spoke of death. He told the people what he wanted his funeral to be like. He also told them that he "may" not reach the promised land with them but that they would still get there. The speech ended with him saying, "I am not afraid of any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!" As Kyles put it, "he preached himself through his fear of death."
The next day, King was uplifted again and ready for the march the following day. He and the other leaders were to have dinner at Kyles' house that night. Kyles came to get him shortly after 5 p.m. They talked and laughed in room 306 for a while. A little after 5:45 King and Kyles stepped out onto the balcony. The other leaders (except Abernathy who was still in the room) were in the parking lot below waiting by the limo. King leaned over the railing to harass Jesse Jackson for not being properly dressed and asked Ben Branch if he would please sing "Precious Lord, Take My Hand" that night. As Kyles headed to the stairs, King turned back to the room to check on Abernathy, and then as he turned back around the shot rang out. Only one shot was fired. The bullet was called a dum dum bullet, which meant it mushroomed once it hit its target. King was shot in the chest, but about half of his face was blown apart and his spine was severed. The hotel owner's wife ran out, saw King down, and immediately had a heart attack. She died within days. King said nothing; he simply crushed his cigarette in his fist. The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes, and he was pronounced dead an hour later at the hospital. Kyles struggled with being the only one on the balcony with King (the shot happened after Kyles started walking away). He remarked, "Crucifixions have to have witnesses. That's why I was there. You can kill the dreamer, but you can't kill the dream." Although there was some looting and rioting that night, the sanitation workers did get higher wages.
So, the museum starts in what was the ground floor of the hotel. It starts with a video of the shooting, but then it describes the entire Civil Rights Movement from Reconstruction through modern-day. Some interesting things I noted: Justice John Harlan was the only Southerner on the bench when the Court decided the Plessy case in 1896. He was the only dissenter, writing, "The Constitution is color-blind." The NAACP grew from a conference to protest a lynching and race riot in Springfield, Illinois. The last of the Scottsboro boys was released in 1950, spending 19 years in prison although the Supreme Court ruled in their favor in 1935. The first freedom ride was actually in 1947. In 1896, nearly 30 states had some form of racial segregation. In 1927, the Supreme Court ruled that it was up to the states regarding school segregation. A psychologist testified in the Brown case as to the damaging effects of discrimination on children. He apparently used dolls ("which doll is the good doll?") to test these effects on kids. Brown II in 1955 said the states needed to integrate "with all deliberate speed." This was changed in late 1960s to "at once." By 1961, 70,000 students had taken part in sit-ins, with 3600 being arrested. The leaders of the movement had training sessions so young people knew how to respond nonviolently to abuse and slander. They also had rules (drafted by the Nashville Nonviolent Movement). Mississippi governor Ross Barnett was the first governor to be found guilty of contempt of court by a federal court. This was in 1962 when he refused to allow James Meredith into Univ. of Miss. When Meredith did finally graduate in 1963, he wore one of the segregationists' buttons that read "Never" upside down on his robe. If shop owners in Birmingham removed the "Whites Only" signs from their stores, they were cited by Bull Connor for "violations of the sanitary code." He said, "Damn the law. Down here, I am the law." During the Birmingham children's march on May 6th, 10 youth were arrested every minute for a two hour stretch. The city had nowhere to put them or could handle the numbers. King's family actually lived in a ghetto in the section of Lawndale in Chicago for almost a year from '65 to '66 to highlight the plight of the poor. After these exhibits, you can see into room 306 as it was when King was shot. The museum removed room 307 and created a viewing area there.
The museum ends as you cross the street into the boardinghouse where James Earl Ray stayed. His actual room and the bathroom from where he shot still stand. The exhibits have been arranged around these areas. The exhibits describe the 65 day manhunt, his capture, the investigation, the evidence, and the trial. On display are the rifle he used, the bullet taken from King's body, the actual autopsy report on King, the bullets and other items left behind by Ray, and even some of his hair that was used to identify him. The final exhibit on the second floor describes the questions that still linger: Was it a conspiracy? Did the FBI or other agency cover it up or help fund the assassination (Ray had $9000 for his mission)? Were there connections to organized crime? The final decision by Congress in 2000 was that James Earl Ray did act alone - case closed. There are exhibits to end the tour depicting others that have been assassinated for their pursuit for civil rights and the social, political, and economic changes for minorities since the 60's. Today, there are 2 billion people still living under totalitarian regimes with limited rights. So, the march continues....
Other than Beale Street and wandering downtown, my other stop in Memphis was Slavehaven, a house on the underground railroad. What makes this house so special is that it was located right in the middle of strong slavery enthusiasts. It belonged to a German immigrant who ran the only stockyards in Memphis. Slaves went through a trapdoor on the back porch, crawled under the foundation of the house, went through a hole into the basement, and then crawled through a tunnel to the Mississippi River. Most of these slaves came from Arkansas or Mississippi, reading the codes in quilts along the way. Most runaway slaves had rewards of $50 to $100 for their capture. Harriet Tubman's price was $40,000! I also learned that closets were taxed as extra rooms (not really pertinent), that slaves started working in the fields at age 5, that slave owners used slave boys on which to put their feet to keep warm, and one slave had himself mailed to Philadelphia, thus spending 27 hours in a box!
I am writing this from Little Rock, Arkansas, which will conclude my journey...
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