National Civil Rights Museum & Shiloh

[Alex Burr - hester_nec]

While I was in Memphis this trip, my daughter and I had a chance to visit the National Civil Rights Museum located in the old Lorraine Hotel/Motel on Mulberry Street in downtown Memphis.

This is the motel (added onto the old hotel at some time) where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Part of the complex is across the street in the boarding house where James Earl Ray allegedly fired the fatal shot from.

The boarding house is accessed from the museum, across Mulberry Street, and through a tunnel under a vacant lot between the two buildings. Then you take an elevator to the 2nd floor. This floor has been opened up, leaving only Ray's room and the bathroom down the hall from where the shooting took place.

A visit to this complex is at one and the same time, not only sobering, but also conducive to much thought about these events from the past.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend you make an effort to visit.

We also drove out to the Shiloh National Military Park, located off TN Route 22 in Shiloh, TN. This is another place that is a great place to visit - if you come from Memphis I recommend taking TN Route 57, as we did. Along the way you will pass thru La Grange, TN - La Grange, IL, was founded, and laid out the same as the TN town by the same man - a town that is literally frozen in time. Most homes along Route 57 have signs giving the original owner and date built. Population has remained almost unchanged for many, many years.

While I took some pictures at the Shiloh Park, I'd recommend this site: http://travel.webshots.com/album/549617110yffVfW

If you are looking for Shiloh on maps or programs such as MS Streets & Trips, you want the Shiloh, TN, located in Hardin County - there are Shilohs in Bedford and Rutherford Counties. Must keep the post office confused. You can also, on MS Streets and Trips, find the Park by searching for Pittsburgh Landing, the Confederate name for the area.

 

Happy Traveling

Alex Burr

[RoadDog]

Shiloh, where, if I remember, US Grant made a name for himself and a major turning point in the Civil War. Well worth visiting.

 

I haven't been to the Civil Rights Museum yet, but will go the next visit. Was Mud Island still operating in the Mississippi River? Loved the ducks at the Peabody.