Civil Rights Museum and More! Another Day in Memphis

The balcony where MLK was standing when he was shot 

The motel has been turned into the Civil Rights Museum

The Mississippi River! 

Just one little peek of the Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid

            Another successful day playing tourist in Memphis! When we were eating breakfast in the hotel lobby, we noticed that, though it was still overcast, it wasn’t actually raining anymore. There were a couple of very light showers on and off throughout the day, but for the most part the rain itself was past. After returning to the room to grab a few things, we headed off for the Civil Rights Museum, arriving there at around ten. The museum itself is built up around what used to be the Lorraine Motel, the place where Martin Luther King Jr. spent his last few hours. At you first walk up to the museum, you can see the balconies of what had been the motel rooms. There’s a wreath hanging from the railing of the balcony of room 306, the exact spot where MLK was shot.

            The museum covered a very wide range of history, starting way back with the transatlantic African slave trade, hundreds of years ago. The displays and exhibits were broken into different sections, from the history of slavery throughout the seventeen and eighteen hundreds, the Civil War, Jim Crow laws, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Freedom Riders, and the life- and death- of Martin Luther King. The main building of the museum ends at the motel room where MLK spent the last few hours of his life. They’ve kept it as close as possible to how it looked that day, with a newspaper sitting on the bed, a suitcase by the door, and a cup of coffee on the table.

            When we left the main section of the museum I got some pictures of the balcony from the street, then we crossed the street to where the museum continued. The other building- where the shooter who killed MLK had been standing- has also been made into an exhibit. That section went into a lot more detail about the shooter, James Earl Ray, including where he’d been standing, the legal process of finding him after the assassination, and the trial. They even had the rifle he used on display. Overall, it was a really well done museum.

            When we were done with that, we decided to take up the advice of several people that we’ve talked to here in Memphis. When we first checked in on Monday, the woman helping us here at the hotel told us that we needed to see the “Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid”. At first I thought that was a weird suggestion- I mean, we have that store in San Antonio! But since then, we’ve had three or four other people tell us that we have to see it. It’s not like any other, they said. So, while it seemed weird, we decided that since so many people were telling us about it, we should give it a try. Let’s just say, this place was unlike any other Bass Pro Shops I’ve ever been! First of all, it’s huge!! I mean, there’s an entire hotel inside, as well as two restaurants, several different big pools housing catfish, bass, and other fish, and even one pool with two alligators! Not only that, right in the middle of the building is a freestanding glass elevator- the tallest freestanding elevator in the country, in fact. After exploring the ground level for a while, we rode the very long elevator up to the top, where there’s a restaurant and a viewing deck where you can step out and get a view of the whole city, as well as the Mississippi River, and even Arkansas on the other side! We ate lunch at that restaurant while admiring the view of the city.

            When we were done exploring the Bass Pro Shops, we returned to the hotel to relax for a while before dinner. The Uber driver that drove us back told us about a restaurant not far from us that was one of the best places to get barbecue, so this evening we took up his advice, and it didn’t disappoint! Sounds like another successful day here in Memphis! Tomorrow is our last full day here, and the plan is to see the zoo. I’m picking this quote as my food for thought because I think it goes with this blog post in multiple ways: “The quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important.”- Martin Luther King, Jr.