Civil Rights Museum

We're fully embracing our tourist options around the city lately. A couple days ago we visited the National Civil Rights Museum. It's currently undergoing renovations, so not all of the exhibits were open. We'll have to check out the improvements once everything's done in 2014.

For those who didn't know, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN on April 4, 1968. The site of the assassination is where the museum was built - the Lorraine Motel and surrounding area.

The museum itself is located across the street in what was the boarding house where the shot was fired from. Before going on the tour, I didn't realize that there have been a lot of different investigations into the killing over the years with various theories and conclusions about what really happened. The museum presents a lot of different information and says that visitors can decide for themselves.

This is the view of the hotel from the 2nd floor bathroom of the boardinghouse.

 Right now, only during construction, the hotel balcony is open to visitors. It's the one on the top floor, Room #306.

Looking from the hotel room door back across the the boarding house.

The museum also has exhibits about the history of civil rights in the U.S. and current civil rights issues. I was kind of sad to see the Voting Rights Act display about how it was a major pillar of civil rights legislation back in the 1960s, and now the Supreme Court has struck it down. Seems like a move in the wrong direction...

After the museum, we had a delicious dinner at Gus's Fried Chicken. My fingers were too greasy to take a picture, but believe me, it was tasty! After that we hit up pint night at the Flying Saucer. Das Fenster wanted to get a lambic but it wasn't on pint night special, so he went for a pear cider. I tried the Blackstone St. Charles Porter from a Nashville brewery. It wasn't too shabby!