Memphis — Cotton, Beale Street & Civil Rights
Lorraine Motel and National Civil Rights Museum
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
Listen
Transcript
The Lorraine Motel was one of the Black-owned or Black-friendly accommodations available to African American travelers during segregation. Musicians and civil-rights leaders stayed here because many white hotels excluded them.
Martin Luther King Jr. stayed at the Lorraine while supporting the sanitation strike. On April 3, 1968, at Mason Temple, he delivered the speech later remembered as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” The next evening, April 4, he was assassinated while standing outside room 306.
The preserved motel became the core of the National Civil Rights Museum, which interprets a much broader history than one assassination.
This is a place where foreknowledge creates an almost unbearable effect. We know the speech came the night before King died, so phrases about mortality sound prophetic. Be careful not to turn that coincidence into evidence that he knew exactly what would happen. King had faced repeated death threats and had spoken about mortality before.
Also keep the sanitation workers visible. King was in Memphis because of their labor struggle.
The balcony is one of America’s most recognized assassination sites, but the museum’s larger argument is more useful: the movement did not begin with King, and it did not end when he died. Movements survive famous individuals by relying on organizations, local leaders and collective action.