The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is located in the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was shot and killed a month after I was born. The museum details African-Americans' long struggle for equal rights, starting with the slave trade in the early 1800s and ending with the brutal murder of King in 1968.
Walking around the motel, which has been frozen in time to that fateful day, makes a big impact. I was not able to take pictures inside the museum, but it is well done and follows each major civil rights advancement, from Brown vs Board of Education, to Rosa Parks, to the sit-ins, to school integration, to voting rights, to the March on Washington, to the Memphis sanitation workers' strike that brought King to Memphis in 1968.
The museum ends in the room that Martin Luther King was staying in when he was shot. When I looked out to the balcony where King was murdered, I was reminded of the photograph taken shortly after King was shot, where Jesse Jackson and others pointed to where the shot came. The cement square is the location where King's head was rested.
They were pointing to this former boarding house, where James Earl Ray was staying, which is now part of the Civil Rights Museum. After seeing where Martin Luther King was shot, you walk across the street to see the room that Ray was staying in and the view he had of the motel balcony.
Ray knew that King would be leaving the motel to speak at a gathering of sanitation workers and other civil rights supporters. He stood in this bathtub with his rifle pointed out the window toward King's room and waited patiently for King to leave.
You can see from looking out the window that it is a clear shot to the balcony. The museum details how Ray followed King across the country for several months, methodically planning to shoot him at some point, and Memphis seemed to be his best opportunity.
This is the rifle that Ray used to assassinate King on April 4, 1968. The museum has several pieces of evidence that was collected against Ray on display, which makes it clear that he stalked then shot King.
Placed in a circular box in a puff of cotton is the bullet that was removed from King's body during the autopsy. Seeing the rifle and bullet, and the scene of the murder, made that moment that I had only seen in photographs come to life.
The Civil Rights Museum in Memphis is located in the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was shot and killed a month after I was born. The museum details African-Americans' long struggle for equal rights, starting with the slave trade in the early 1800s and ending with the brutal murder of King in 1968.
Walking around the motel, which has been frozen in time to that fateful day, makes a big impact. I was not able to take pictures inside the museum, but it is well done and follows each major civil rights advancement, from Brown vs Board of Education, to Rosa Parks, to the sit-ins, to school integration, to voting rights, to the March on Washington, to the Memphis sanitation workers' strike that brought King to Memphis in 1968. 
The museum ends in the room that Martin Luther King was staying in when he was shot. When I looked out to the balcony where King was murdered, I was reminded of the photograph taken shortly after King was shot, where Jesse Jackson and others pointed to where the shot came. The cement square is the location where King's head was rested.
They were pointing to this former boarding house, where James Earl Ray was staying, which is now part of the Civil Rights Museum. After seeing where Martin Luther King was shot, you walk across the street to see the room that Ray was staying in and the view he had of the motel balcony. 
Ray knew that King would be leaving the motel to speak at a gathering of sanitation workers and other civil rights supporters. He stood in this bathtub with his rifle pointed out the window toward King's room and waited patiently for King to leave. 
You can see from looking out the window that it is a clear shot to the balcony. The museum details how Ray followed King across the country for several months, methodically planning to shoot him at some point, and Memphis seemed to be his best opportunity. 
This is the rifle that Ray used to assassinate King on April 4, 1968. The museum has several pieces of evidence that was collected against Ray on display, which makes it clear that he stalked then shot King. 
Placed in a circular box in a puff of cotton is the bullet that was removed from King's body during the autopsy. Seeing the rifle and bullet, and the scene of the murder, made that moment that I had only seen in photographs come to life.
