Memphis

National Civil Rights Museum

Today, we visited two fascinating but very different museums in Memphis. The National Civil Rights Museum is located at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was assassinated. They have preserved the exterior look of the motel and the room where he was staying, while having a modern museum inside. The story begins with slaves being sent to America, when all 13 colonies allowed slavery. America’s economy was jump started with slave labor, at first farming tobacco and after the invention of the cotton gin, the growing of cotton. It then tells the controversial story behind the preservation and abolishment of slavery from the War of Independence through the Civil War. The Emancipation Proclamation introduced a brief period where blacks held political office, but this was quickly replaced with Jim Crow laws that placed restrictions in voting and separate facilities for blacks and whites. This arrangement became the law of the land when the Supreme Court affirmed it. Most of the museum, describes the many years spent trying to regain their civil rights. The court cases (particularly interesting were the cases before Brown vs. the Board of Education), the defiance of the blacks to the laws, most of them non-violent protests, the strikes and boycotts. But it took the violent acts of whites against the blacks for President Kennedy to finally take action, sending troops to integrate the school system. It was also stirring to listen to the famous speeches of King, how he gave hope to blacks while recognizing the high possibility of his death. Finally, the museum talks about the assassination, the investigation to find his killer, and whether there was a conspiracy to killing. We spent about 3 hours touring this museum. I highly recommend this museum.

Lunch Counter Sit-in

We ate lunch at Dyers on Beale Street. Beale Street was in the heart of the black district and famous for the blues. Here we visited the Rock and Soul Museum. We were given a set of headphones which allowed us not only to listen to the story of the music, but also listen to examples of the music. The story starts with whites performing country music and blacks playing the blues and gospel music. Rock and Soul music came about as the white lyrics were married with the rhythms of black music. Music was changed forever, when a disc jockey named Dewey Phillips started playing black music on a white radio station. Teenagers loved it! The museum also told the story of the local music companies like Sun Records from which many of our famous rock stars were born: Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Cad Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis. By accident they all met at the studio one night which forms the basis of the musical, Million Dollar Quartet. The museum finishes with the other famous recording studios of the time, Stax records and Hi Records. If you're interested in music, this museum is great. 

Rock and Soul Museum