April 4th, 1968. It started like any other day. A preacher friend of MLK by the name of Kyle went at five to pick up MLK to go to Kyle's house for dinner, but they talked for a long time about different things, like the trash collector march and some other things they were involved with. They came on out to the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel, where MLK had been staying in the room of 306. MLK talked to some people below him, and asked one of them to play a song. Abernathy and Kyle were both there. Kyle turned saying it was time to leave, and then it happened. The shot. It came from a Remington 30-06 rifle, by James Earl Ray, an escaped racist convict, in a bathroom of a boarding house, in a bathtub. MLK fell down, the blood wound in his head and chest. He had barely time to breath. They called an ambulance, everyone shocked and afraid. James Earl Ray took off in his car, and drove from Memphis to Atlanta, using several fake names. He went from Atlanta to Toronto, Canada, in a place, and thence to Toronto to London, and was about to go to Brussels when he was arrested after a 65-day manhunt. He was then put into jail, and up to his death in '98, he still said it was not him, that he did not do it. Yet history records he did. It all happened at Lorraine Hotel. And that, my good readers, is where we spent yesterday.
We drove in the downtown of Memphis, a rough area of bad neighborhoods and criminals. We came into sight of a little motel, green paint with a sign of Lorraine and some light bulbs. It had a red sign on it. We parked in a little parking lot a little by it, and went into the building. At this day it is a civil rights museum, with a lot of displays. We came into a circular lobby with a ticket booth slightly smaller than other ones we had seen. There was a large and wide rock wall thing, divided into two pieces. It had all kinds of people holding hands in the rock, going up hills but not at the top yet. It's called, "Struggle to Overcome." We got tickets and entered the civil rights museum. We saw a movie in a big room, about Kyle, the only preacher in that room and the only person on the balcony who is alive. The movie was his reflections about the incident, what was going on at that time, what MLKJ was working into, where they were going, and what happened when the shot rang out. It was called The Witness. And it was very sad.
We then started the audio tape, and learned about how slaves came to America early in the 1600's, and how all of the abolitionists like Fredrick Douglas, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, William Lloyd Garrison, want slavery to go away. Saw a timeline telling of the events of the nineteenth century, and there were papers and artifacts from that time. The civil rights museum was very well laid out, and it was very interesting. We then got to the Emancipation Proclamation, and the "freedom" of slaves. After that we learned about Reconstruction, and sadly, the Jim Crow laws and the KKK. We saw robes of those monsters, the people who killed blacks just because of their skin color. I'm very glad we live in a society today that does not tolerate those terrible things. We saw about the NAACP, W.E.B. Bois, and other people who helped to make blacks truly equal. Then we saw a display of a real diner where sit-ins happened, and saw a replica of the bus Rosa Parks was on the day she didn't give up her seat and was arrested. (real one in Greenfield Village, MN. I've seen it.) It had mannikin's and voices over intercoms, telling the story. It was cool to listen to tapes again, after seeing it at Graceland. They looked exactly the same, the only thing different being the speaker, which in this case was a women, a man, and another man. Back to civil rights museum. We learned about the Alabama Bus Boycott, and MLKJ and what he did. MLKJ organized boycotts, marches, and it was awesome to hear a full recording of the "I have a Dream!" speech. It was very cool to learn all about civil rights, and the peoples' struggle to earn rights. It was also sad at what our country was back then, mostly segregated in everyday life, and how African-Americans had to go to the back of buses or drink at different water fountains because they were what? Black? No one is inferior because of the color of their skin, everyone has born rights and every one is the same. We talked to an employee there who talked about how even when she was 17 that she had to drink at different water fountains and go to different schools. It was very crazy to think about. I learned about how two white teenagers lynched and killed an African-American student because he "flirted with a white woman" as they said. He came from the north and so did not know, and they killed him for THAT? I would be ashamed if I lived in a country like that. At least those days are gone. There are fragments of racism left in this country, but not a whole lot.
We learned about the Voting Act of 1965 signed by Lyden B. Johnson, and some other things MLKJ did. We went up fake bridges which were replicas of real ones people marched over, and saw the podium and fake Abraham Lincoln Memorial, and saw manikins of people in the crowd cheering. Then I saw it. Up some stairs through a hallway on a balcony overlooking some of the other parts of the museum. Room 306. The balcony of Lorraine Hotel. Where Martin Luther King Jr. died.
The shot. MLKJ was on his back, dead before he knew what was coming. Room 306 is like a lot of little hotel rooms. It had two beds with light brown sheets, one of the beds, on the right, had one side of the sheet pulled forward like someone came out. There was a small desk between, with a bible and an old white phone. Right in front of us was a large drawer, with an ash tray and some clothes were also on it. It was a simple room with some paintings. But many things happened there. It was separated by a glass wall, and there was a museum plaque telling about what happened. There was a hallway we were in. On the left was a room where a reporter stayed, Room 308. We were standing in the remains of 307, which was moved out to allow people to see the room. Ahead we could see the balcony right before us, with a body sized area which was in a corner of a room, if you understand me. There was a reef over the balcony rail, and some words etched in stone at the bottom of the hotel. There was a little bit of concrete that had red blood stains. Even after '68 to '11, it still was red. It gave me chills. History was made here. And it was so sad that it was. Martin Luther King Junior died because he wanted to have African-Americans free. That was supposed as a crime to James Earl Ray. It was very sad. I mean, that he died like that, it's so grieving. He was such a great man, who was very compassionate, also a powerful speaker, and a man who wanted to do good.
We soon left to the gift shop, where I looked around, looking for a book about Ray's capture and hunt. I couldn't find it. I wanted to read a book like that 'cause I had read one about John Wilkes Booth's escape, but oh well. We went across the street to where a boarding house was, where Ray shot MLKJ. It was a brick building, kind of rectangular vertically, and had windows, old and rusted. We walked in, and were told to go to the second floor first before going down to the first. There we learned about Ray escaping from jail, using names Galt and others, and coming to the boarding house, selecting a room with a view of the Lorraine. I saw his little bed, and where he had a T.V. also, with a fridge. It was old and stinky-looking residence. We then saw a little dirty bathroom with a white tub and toilet, and I saw how from the bathtub Ray had a PERFECT shot. The fatal shot. I learned about his long escape, how the FBI found out it was him, and how INTERPOL, International Police, got involved and got him in London, first arresting him for having two passports with different names and that he had a gun in his baggage, later finding out he was a bad assassin. I saw fake passports Ray used, and also the gun he killed MLKJ with. It was very crazy. I saw a picture of him, and he looked like a rascal. The next part of this section of the civil rights museum was about other famous people who were assassinated. John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, and some other people. We went into the gift shop, but sadly they had no books on Ray. Oh well.
We got in the jeep and prepared to drive to SUN Records, which is where Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash both became music sensations. It was in yet another rough area, and was a little red brick building that was dirty from age. It had a metal awning over the entrance, and a yellow guitar suspended on it. We parked in the back, rather painstakingly, though, but we got in. It was a cafe with tables, a lot of people, restrooms, lines, and a room in the back where they sold things. We tried to move around like so and so, and eventually through all the people we got tickets, and waited in a line for the tours in front of a restroom, which people frequently went in and out of. I got to read some of my Lost Horizon book, and the more I read, the more I hated it but wanted to see how it ended. It was really weird. Anyway in the back room a short brown-haired girl was telling everyone that to watch their heads and that the tour was about to start. We went up, and it was very steep, and tight, as we looked at pictures of some of the greatest singers of all time, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and others. We came into a medium ceiling room with displays all around, guitars played by Elvis, old record player stuff and recording equipment, and stuff like that. The girl told us about a guy who started the studio, how he came out with the first ever rock song, Jack Brenston's Rocket 88. It was crazy to see the first record of the first rock song of many. We learned about when Elvis walked in at 17, asking to see Sam, the guy in charge. The secretary said he wasn't there and asked why Elvis wanted to see him. He said because he was making a b-day song for his mom, which wasn't true. He made his first recording here and took the record home. The Secretary showed it to Sam but he didn't find anything in it. Elvis came back a lot and Sam kept dismissing him until one day when Elvis played a really good song and Sam liked it. The rest is history.
We went downstairs after looking at all the cool artifacts and saw the Secretary's office, which was a desk, and two chairs by the practice room. In the practice room, we saw drum sets and guitars, plus the pictures on all the walls and the high ceiling and tile floor. All the walls and ceiling were a kind of material, white, with holes in it. We stepped on an actual mark where Elvis stood, and felt a long mike all the stars used. We even listened to real music of the stars. It was really cool to see where all the stars played. Later, we went back into the main room and went away. We came to Beale Street, a big illuminating street with all kinds of designs and lights on the sides of restaurants and businesses, like that cool worded Memphis sign. We got into Kings Palace Cafe, and listened to a large African-American singer who we met and talked to for a long time. He said his name was David Bowen, and he was a great and skilled musician, both with the mike and the guitar. He sang "What a wonderful world," which I enjoyed a lot. We got a CD from him. I had a great server and salad at Kings Palace, we then went after enjoying a great meal. We got home and I finished that bad book. I then went to sleep.
Louis Armstrong first sang "What a Wonderful World" in the 30's,
Andrew.
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| Room 306 Lorraine Hotel |
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