Civil Rights Trail - Memphis
We first visited the National Civil Rights Museum , our first year on the road. A stop at the Loraine Motel is always an emotional experience. The museum is crafted around the motel where Martin Luther King Jr . would often stay while in Memphis. Ralph Abernathy called room 306, the King-Abernathy Suite. He was standing on the balcony in front of that room when he was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. He had returned to support the Memphis sanitation workers who were striking for better wages and working conditions. The museum is exceptionally well done and highlights the fight for civil rights from slavery through today. We have visited many sites along the Civil Rights Trail over the past several months. Each stop reminds me that the fight for social justice is not yet over. I recall Mark Twain’s idea that “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness”. There is a courtyard to the entrance of the museum that extends across the front of the Motel. The wreat