The National Civil Rights Museum

2019-08-21 Wednesday

We started today with a trip to see the National Civil Rights Museum, which was closed yesterday. We decided to extend our visit in Memphis for a day in order to see this museum, which sounded fantastic from the descriptions I read. It did not disappoint. In fact, from before we even stepped foot inside, it was already an amazing experience. We were looking for a place to park, and between the buildings I could see a 1950’s style motor hotel—2 stories high, with a railing along the second floor. I realized immediately that it was the Lorraine Hotel, the site where Dr. Martin Luther King was shot. It is part of the museum, but seeing it as a building on a street, it looked both out of place and natural at the same time.

Protest at Woolworth’s Counter

We parked in the museum parking lot, across the street from the hotel, which still has the original sign and facade. The marble plaque in front of the hotel has MLK’s name, and includes the quote from Genesis 37: “They said to one another, Behold, here comes the dreamer...let us slay him...and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” It was very moving, and an ideal introduction to the museum. We 

It is easy to describe the museum, but hard to describe the emotional impact of the visit. The displays begin with slavery, explaining how Africans came to the Americas, and where they were “settled” (which is a nice way of saying, sold.) The room was a waiting area before the short film began, and I didn’t quite finish reading all of the panels in the room—a precursor of things to come.

The film was interesting, but it was only the merest introduction to the idea of “all men are created equal.” The next room began to explain how, from the very first, Africans were NOT “equal”.... and this, of course, was the theme of much of the museum. It took us through the civil war, and the aftermath (Reconstruction, the beginning of Jim Crow laws in the South, and the legal decisions which allowed these laws to flourish.) There were exhibits on every facet of life in America as a black person experienced it. And then, at the advent of the civil rights movement in 1950, the displays became much more intense and specific.

Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott

There were amazing displays (entire rooms) on the non-violent protests and sit-ins in retail establishments such as Woolworth’s; the bombings in Birmingham; the Freedom Riders; the brutality at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma (complete with us walking up a “bridge” as we read what happened), etc. And throughout, the intensity and extent of the white resistance to equal rights, the outrage and violence with which they opposed the enforcement of laws supported by the courts. There were many examples of specific protests and marches in different Southern cities, and also displays on how the rest of the world viewed these protests, how the media covered them, and how the Kennedy (and then Johnson) administrations responded to them.

March on Washington

There was one room which dealt with the March on Washington, where MLK gave his “I have a dream” speech. The set-up of the room and display allowed the visitor to feel as if they were in the crowd at the event. The gigantic photograph of the crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial dominated the room, while a video played in the corner with the sound of Dr. King’s speech and visions of the reactions of those in the crowd.

The final rooms dealt with the garbage strike in Memphis, which

Memphis Garbage Strike 

brought Dr. King to the city to encourage the strikers and help them with their cause. Video footage of the strike were projected on the side of a garbage truck, with strikers in the corner marching with signs proclaiming, “I AM A MAN”. And then, then, walking through this sequence, we suddenly found ourselves inside the Lorraine Hotel, in the very space that King and those with him had occupied—we could look out the window and see the plaza where we’d first approached the museum. Rooms 206 and 207 were recreated there, and we read panels describing King’s last minutes in that very spot.  

View from Room 206

It’s hard to remember what displays came after that— of course the struggle for civil rights was not over, and there were more displays of the aftermath of the assassination and the many changes and protests in society in the years that followed. By this time, we’d been in the museum for over 3 hours— all in all, we stayed for 3.5 hours and rushed through the last rooms because it was so late and Joe needed to eat something. 

But more than that, it was draining and exhausting on an emotional level. The intensity of the events was so well presented that I felt utterly drained.  Beyond that, I was both amazed and humbled by the overall effect I was left with— that of the courage of the protestors, many of them children, who quite literally risked their lives because they insisted on a life of dignity and respect, education and voting rights, and the belief that the promises of the US Constitution that “all men are created equal” should apply to them too. It was an opportunity to look at the civil rights movement from the inside out, rather than from the outside in, which (as a white person, and as a fairly young person when all this was taking place, was my previous point of view.)

We slowly made our way out of the museum, and realized we didn’t even have the strength anymore to go to the second part, which was across the street in a completely different area. We needed to eat, and time was starting to become an issue, since we also wanted to travel today. So we drove back to the RV, had a quick lunch of leftovers, and hooked the Jeep up so we could leave our cozy spot under the bridge.

Crossing the Mississippi River

The rest of the day was the drive to the suburbs of Little Rock, Arkansas. We are now in a state-run Corps of Engineers park, Willow Beach Recreation Area. With our America the Beautiful pass, it only cost $9.50, with electricity to run our air conditioner, and best of all, a SHOWER!!!  Joe and I made a beeline for that, and we are feeling so good now that we’re all clean again. Sponge washes are simply not the same.

So it was a very memorable day. The emotions of the museum didn’t leave us while we were driving, and we found ourselves discussing the history, what we remembered of it ourselves, and how the displays had made us feel. Both of us were profoundly moved by the experience. I wish everyone could go to this museum— it is important for all Americans to understand this history, because, sadly, we seem to be living out the next stage of the epic struggle again now.