In the dark of night, 3,000 people stood in anticipation during a thunderstorm at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. decided to speak to the mass of people after being swayed by Ralph Abernathy, fellow co-founder of Southern Leadership Christian Conference.
King was in Memphis for the sanitation worker strike where 1,300 employees went on strike to gain recognition for their union. The city was like a pressure cooker.
The evening of April 3, 1968, King delivered an unplanned speech which turned out to be his last.
“I’ve been to the Mountain top” was the name of the speech King exuded from his soul. That night his voice sang like a hymn inspiring all those who listened to find hope in that dark moment of civil unrest.
“Longevity has its place, but I am not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will,” said King at the end of his speech.
It was that night, King shared the premonition of his untimely death.
The following day, King was reportedly in a joyous mood; clowning around with friend Andy Young before heading out the door of his tiny motel room.
Little did anyone know King’s prediction of a short life came true that morning.
It’s been nearly 35 years since King stood at the now famous Lorraine Motel balcony before being fatally wounded from a single rifle bullet on the morning of April 4th, 1968.
In the distance, renovation blooms in downtown Memphis but the building where the alleged shooter James Earl Ray fired the bullet that killed King remains standing.
The very room King stayed in remains frozen in time as a haunting reminder of the day an icon was lost, but a dream was passed on.
Monday, January 18, The University of Memphis will observe King’s birthday along with the rest of the country.
At the National Civil Rights Museum, there will be several events this weekend celebrating King’s life and impact on the Civil Rights Movement.
Among the activities will be a performance by the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble and playwright and local actor Darius Wallace portraying King.
“Show up,” said Gwen Harmon, Director of public relations and marketing. “You don’t know who you might see.”
Harmon said the events on Monday will begin with a Ecumenical March that will end on the steps of the museum.
The museum spans across 27,000 square feet inside the Lorraine Motel, housing actual news footage and documents from the height of the Civil Rights Movement.
The museum takes visitors down an interactive timeline visiting cities and events such as the government allowing the admittance of nine African American students to a Little Rock, Arkansas high school and ending in Memphis with the sanitation strikes and King’s last record of King’s last days.
A replica of the bus Rosa Parks refused to give her seat up on in 1955 transports you to another era.
The interactive display gives the participant a small idea of what Rosa Parks and other African-Americans living in this time had to endure just to ride the bus.
“Don’t sit there” or “we’ll have to call the cops,” repeats the automated voice on the bus.
“The bus is where we get most of our questions from school kids,” Harmon said. “Once they enter that bus, they start asking questions such as ‘Why can’t I sit at the front of the bus.’”
The next exhibit on the museum tour is a lunch counter similar to the one students used during the student movement.
Students staged sit-ins throughout the south which proved to be an economic weapon when segregated lunch counters lost business.
“The lunch sit-in counter looked like they were trying to egg on a fight,” said the anchor man on the television screen airing news footage of the actual sit-ins behind the counter. The footage repeats every five minutes.
On April 16, 1963 King was arrested in Birmingham and was forced to spend the night in a tiny jail cell.
The museum recreated this cell and a transcript of the conversation he had with his wife, Coretta Scott King is posted between the bars.
The tour also featured holding cells were students were kept in mass arrests.
The cells were made to hold seven people, yet the authorities would crowd over 75 into the spaces.
“In Jackson Mississippi,, they ran out of room and put them in the stock yards at the fair grounds,” said Harmon, who grew up in Jackson. “They held about 100 kids, as young as 15-years-old.”
At the last stop of the tour, visitors are able to peer into the room King slept in the day before he was assassinated.
The room is set up to look exactly as King had left it, including an unmade bed, stacked dishes and old cigarettes.
The National Civil Rights Museum, located at 450 Mulberry Street, opens from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays. Price for admission is $8.50 for adults, $6.50 for children, for seniors and college students with Ids can enter for $7.50. Children under three are free. For more information call 521-9699.
