I meant to start this little mini-series a while back on my blog, but as mentioned here, I haven't been able to lately. What I want to put together is a collection of the places in and around the Mississippi Delta that one could check out if visiting or living there, like me.

The first place I want to showcase is officially a little bit outside of the Delta -- but by only a number of street blocks. That place is the National Civil Rights Museum (NCRM) in Memphis, TN.

The NCRM is built into the Lorraine Motel, the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The hotel is preserved as it was on the day of the assassination and the NCRM is built into the side and back of the Lorraine Motel's facade.

All the rest of the pictures in this post are not mine, since the museum did not allow photography. Sadly, there was not a ton to take pictures of. The museum was very text heavy. They offered an audio presentation via headphones for a couple dollars, but the four of us that went elected to read the exhibits.

After the first few halls of material, the reading just got to be a bit much. But, I don't really know how the museum could better convey the significance of a legal ruling that isn't on the level of Plessy v. Ferguson or Brown v. Board. Maybe I should have gotten the audio presentation.

That isn't to say that there wasn't some cool aspects to the museum. In one part, there is a bus identical to the bus where Rosa Parks made her famous protest. You actually get to walk through the bus, which was interesting. There is also a good depiction of student sit-ins.

The most interesting part of the museum is the end of the Lorraine Motel portion, where you get to see the inside of rooms 306 and 307 recreated nearly as they were on the day of King's assassination. It's pretty eerie and sad.

On the other side of the street is the expansion to the NCRM, which opened in 2002. It is built into the building where James Earl Ray assassinated King. The central question of that portion of the museum is: What happened since King's assassination? It starts out showing what happened to James Earl Ray and then goes on to civil rights since 1968. It also goes on to profile leaders in the continuing Civil Rights Movement. I unfortunately didn't have a lot of time to explore this portion of the museum because I had to get back go Greenville.

On a side note, I found this picture while doing some research for this post. This is from a few weeks ago when Bush and Japanese President Koizumi visited Memphis (mostly to see Graceland). Just to note: Bush is not one of the civil rights leaders featured at the museum's second portion. It should go without saying, but I for some reason feel like I need to make that clear.

For sake of completeness I'm mentioning this. The Smithsonian American History Museum has a great Civil Rights Exhibit. I would tell you to go see it, but today is sadly the last day of its run.