Today we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. It's set in the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The museum starts out by detailing the Blacks struggle against slavery from 1619 up to the civil war in 1865, when they were used in the fighting. It then goes into the abolition of slavery and the formation of groups like the KKK and the onset of segregating Whites and Blacks down South, where Blacks were seen as equal, but separate. This action in turn spawned the formation of the black civil rights movement.
Through all this Black Army Divisions were sent to fight for the US in World War 2, whilst their voting rights were stopped, their schooling was separate, as were the buses. It tells the tale of peaceful protest by Blacks that were led by MLK. There is story after story of Blacks and Whites who died in the search of equality. You then get to balcony on which MLK was shot and the mock of apartment 306 where he was staying.
You then cross the road to the new part of the museum which is set in the building from where the shot was fired by James Earl Ray. It has the get away car and they've rebuilt the bathroom from where the shot was fired. It then looks at all the conspiracy theories around the assassination. After this it only briefly goes into how the civil rights movement continued and what they are still fighting, like illiteracy, poverty and housing.
The $10 spent on entry to this museum really gets you thinking. I can't imagine what people were thinking back then, apart from self preservation. Equally I have no idea what it was like in Memphis in 1968 when MLK was assassinated. I wonder if he would consider what we have today as progress. When walking around most of the cities and seeing the state of the places that some people live, you can see why people are complaining about rebuilding Iraq.
Keith who was staying the same hotel as us deserves a mention. Not because he supports Man City, but because he's from Oldham. I know it's not the nicest place in the world, but it does remind me of one of my favorite chat up lines. "Can you show me the way to 'Hold em'" Brilliant, obviously you can only use it on a girl from Oldham.
