Memphis Day Two

We started the day off right with the 10:00 A.M. service at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church. This church was the first African-American congregation in the city of Memphis to belong to the brotherhood of the Christian Churches (or Disciples of Christ). The church was in the middle of celebrating Lent and their theme of the service today was Love and Anger. After a powerful message and many welcoming handshakes from the congregation, we left to go to the National Civil Rights Museum.

The National Civil Rights Museum was attached to the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was murdered in 1968. We had an enthusiastic tour guide named Jolynn whose passion for the Civil Rights Movement captured our attention for the entire tour. One of the most shocking things I saw at the Museum was a picture of a lynching of Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas in 1916. There was a quote beneath the sobering photo that read, "The tree where the lynching was done was right under the Mayor's window. Mayor Dollins was standing in the window, not concerned about what they were doing to the boy but that the tree would be destroyed." It was startling to me that we had come all the way from Texas to experience major landmarks in the Civil Rights Movement and something so significant had happened right back in our home of Waco. We were also allowed to look at the rooms where MLK stayed at the Lorraine Hotel and out onto the balcony where MLK was shot. It was unreal to be feet away from the spot, forever marked by a wreath, where MLK was assassinated.

The tour continued across the street to the building where James Earl Ray was believed to have shot MLK from. The building was a boardinghouse in 1968 and the room that Ray had rented has been preserved for visitors to look at. This part of the museum also included the various conspiracy theories about James Earl Ray and how many people believed that he was not the only person involved in the plot to kill MLK.

After the National Civil Rights Museum, we drove to Beale Street to eat as well as experience the famous nightlife. It was my second night of Memphis barbecue and I have to say I will definitely miss it when we leave Tennessee.