I came across this post on Instagram from This Is Fusion that really got me thinking....... The Lorraine Motel in Memphis is where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and is the current site of the National Civil Rights Museum. King had traveled to Memphis to lend his support to a sanitation workers strike. He gave his last speech at a Memphis church and he spoke these foreshadowing words: "Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live - a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man." The next day he was assassinated. Today we honor his legacy.
Negro Motorist Green Book). This book was somewhat like the Yellow Pages in that is listed hotels, restaurant's, gas stations, etc. that were friendly to African Americans during the Jim Crow era. Memphis has a rich music history and do to it's close proximity to Stax Records and Beale Street, many musicians and song writers would also stay there. Did you know that the motel had both white and black guests that stayed there? Negro League baseball players, the Harlem Globetrotters, Ray Charles, Otis Redding, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Aretha Franklin, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughn, Nat King Cole, and Isaac Hayes were all guests of the famous hotel. By the way, Isaac Hayes grandson was one of my Spanish 2 students during the 2012-2013 school year! Two years before that, I taught Al Green's grandson too. Click here to read more about the Lorraine Motel.
ended up coming up to Memphis. He had actually visited Memphis a few times before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. I called my father today to ask him about his experience during the Sanitation Strikes. He was just a boy at that time. He was only 13 and my grandmother, Loraine, had forbade him to go but he went anyway. He told me that he went to two of them. Of course. He recalls the crowds holding I Am A Man signs while marching down the streets. His voice filled with emotion as he began to tell me about the police sicking the dogs on them and spraying them with water hoses. He had to run and dodge his way home because the police been instructed to pick up any black they saw leaving that area of town. He recalls hiding in the grass while watching other's nearby being beat with billy clubs held by angry police officers. My dad ran track for the U.S. Airforce, winning gold in the 1983 Mediterranean Conferenece representing the Zaragoza, Spain Airforce base. I remember him being pretty fast as an adult, so I can only imagine how fast he was running as a boy!
Below are a few of our favorite photos from Beale St. and Mr. Lovelace's I Am A Man mural.
1 Comment
1/17/2017 10:31:20 am
That was very interesting, I'd love to visit Memphis, TN. The pictures are very beautiful!!
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