Trip to Memphis provides eye-opening glimpse of movement
July 14th, 2008, 4:34 pm · 1 Comment · posted by dbrannan
A trip to Memphis, Tenn., provided an eye-opening glimpse to the civil rights movement and the work of one of the key leaders.
On Saturday, I drove to Memphis with retired Telegraph reporter Ande Yakstis to visit the National Civil Rights Museum.
I met with Barbara Andrews, museum currator, and Beverly Robertson, the organization’s president. The two and all the others at the museum were most gracious.
The museum captures the essence of the civil rights movement, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassination and much more. I will write a lot more about this in some stories and commentaries in the coming days.
The same holds true for the visit to Monumental Baptist Church in Memphis with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, the pastor and his congregation. Kyles is one of the last living leaders in the key inner circle King. He also was with him the last hour of his life and also tried to help him after he had been shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The congregation and Kyles made us feel right at home and spent a considerable amount of time with us.
My question is how many of you have visited the National Civil Rights Museum? What are your thoughts?
I encourage readers to look for our upcoming series, videos and photos from the weekend. This will culminate the series I have worked on with Ande marking the 40th anniversary of King’s assassination.
I also urge residents to consider a trip to Memphis to see the museum if you haven’t visited before.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
I visited in 2000. Memphis as a whole is an absolutely marvelous city!
I remember the trip to the Museum as overwhelming. I don’t know if anything has changed since 2000, but I recall alot of reading, ended by solemn remorse at the motel room and balcony. There was one personal experience there that I will never forget. I grew up in a small town in SW Iowa (about a 1/2 hour SE of Omaha, NE). Like Alton, it has its own history of Abolitionism.
( http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/underground/ia1.htm)
I remember walking through an area with lots of newspaper headlines from racial lynchings. As I went from one to the next, looking at the cities they came from, I began to grow bitter and thoughts began to run through my head. Jackson MS- “rednecks!”, Mobile AL- “Hicks!”, Atlanta GA- “racist deadbeats!”. Then there it was, an old front page from the Omaha World Herald-BAM!!!. The picture showed the victim hanging from a post with many people there posing for the picture. The note written said that nobody was arrested for the murder, but the paper had no problem finding people wishing to be in the portrait. A chill ran thru my body. I had been going thru thinking that people from my area were different and above such horrific behavior. It literally knocked me back a couple of steps. It taught me a lesson in humility, and made it clear that racism existed everywhere in our country.
As some of the memories of my trip to Memphis blur over time, I know that one will stay with me forever. I got the same chill now just writing about it!