The date was April 4, 1968. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out of room 306 and onto the front balcony of The Lorraine Hotel. He spoke a few words to a musician friend, Ben Branch, who was standing down below in the parking lot, asking him to “play Precious Lord,” and to “play it real sweet”, referring to a song he wished to hear later that evening. Those were his last words. He was assassinated by a single bullet to his throat by a white supremist named James Earl Ray.
We visited that hotel today. The city kept the hotel and added on a beautiful modern museum, attaching it to the old hotel. It is like a time capsule of that fateful April morning.
What a clever way to honor the man and that sacred place by leaving it untouched, unspoiled, unmarked by time.
Once inside the new portion of The National Civil Rights Museum, the interactive displays and video presentations gave a detailed history lesson of the entirety of the Civil Rights Movement, dating from the beginning of the slave trade in 1619 to the New World through to present-day slavery throughout the world
There were sections that I enjoyed and appreciated, and many of the pictures displayed were copies of ones that I used in my history classes. I learned some new, interesting back stories of some of the Civil Rights leaders and many of the activists, too.
There were some aspects of the museum that I found off-putting, however. Gary and I both felt it was in bad taste to have a gift shop as the exit room of the museum. The purchase of a mug or T-shirt commemorating someone’s death seemed wrong. Asking us if we wanted to make a donation to the museum after having paid $40 for admission seemed presumptuous.
If you didn’t know much about the Civil Rights Movement, the people who made it possible throughout the centuries, or even if you thought you knew a lot, this museum will certainly educate, entertain, and make you stop and think.