NATIONAL CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM

Nov 17th

One of the places  I really wanted to see was the National Civil Rights Museum.  I'm so glad we went. We have seen alot of museums on our travels, but this  is the most well done and  thought provoking that we have ever seen.  There is so much to see and take in,  that it is mind boggling. I got teary eyed several times. It is located at the Lorraine Motel, the site where Martin Luther King was assassinated.  You start in the modern building next to the motel and  it ends  actually looking into the room of Martin Luther King.  Felt very strange  looking into his room. The other part of the museum is across the street in the boarding house where James Earl Ray stayed.

This was taken from the  bathroom window where James Earl Ray stood.    His  room and  bathroom at the boarding house were on display.   The wreath is where martin Luther King stood when he was assinated.   Also felt   strange  to be at the window.

Original sign of the motel

Wreath is  right in front of his room, exactly where Martin Luther  King was standing when he was killed

Hard to imagine

Statue of typical sale of slave woman and child. Sometimes they didn't have clothes on so the owner could see what he was getting

 Hold of slave ship, hard to imagine

Rosa Parks on the bus she rode when she wouldn't give up her seat

One of the lunch counters where they had their sit in's.  The 3 on the left were white,  3 on the right were black.

 Burned  bus of the Freedom Riders

 Equality has come along way, but still has far to go.  Just think of what's going on in  Ferguson, MO.   We visited my cousin, Lois, in IL.  She has  been a teacher in  Ferguson for 27 years. It was interesting to get a point of view from someone who has been there  from the beginning.


Unfortunately you still see this in the south.  This trailer was at our park in Memphis.  When we toured the south extensively in 1996, we saw  alot of rebel flags.