2023 Road Trip: Civil Rights Trail: Memphis, TN (5/8/2023)

Monday, May 8, 2023

Actually, miscellanea from the city of Memphis, TN.

The "Pink Palace" (1922, for Piggly Wiggly founder
Clarence Saunders) was not completed due to
bankruptcy, and was donated to the city of Memphis;
opened in 1930 as the Memphis Museum of
Natural History and Industrial Arts ...

... that is now the Memphis Museum of Science and History

We tried to visit the tomb of Danny Thomas on the grounds
of the hospital he founded, St Jude Children Research Hospital;
no in-person tours are allowed at this time; however,
as we turned around at the guard house, we passed the
gate to the tomb and garden (a Roadside America attraction)

The only way to get a photo of St Jude's is
with a drive-by on a highway!

Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum on the
Burkle Estate (1849), with a secret cellar in the house,
was closed and on a different schedule than listed online ...

... which meant we had more time for the National Civil Rights
Museum (1991, renovated 2012-2014) at the Lorraine Motel
(1925) and the motel itself belongs to the state
(a Roadside America attraction)

A red and white wreath marks the spot on the balcony
where Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was fatally shot

The museum begins with slavery, noting
from where the Africans were taken;
this is kente cloth from the Ashanti Nation

Donson doloki/hunter's shirt from
the Greater Mandés people, with amulets filled
with medicinal substances sewn on the shirt

The African prisoners were crowded into ships and ...

... brought to American shores to be sold as slaves

Actual dolls from the experiment by two Black
psychology researchers, Drs Kenneth and Mamie Clark,
to show that African American children had developed
low self esteem and sense of worth by attending
segregated schools; the results were cited in the
case of Brown vs Board of Education (1952-1954)

Children of both races, from North and the South, tended to pick the white doll as the good one, and the black as bad.

The Problem We All Live With (1964, by Norman Rockwell)
depicts Ruby Bridges, the first African-American child to
attend school after a federal court ordered the New Orleans
school system to integrate, and this was 10 years after the
Brown vs Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that
school segregation was unconstitutional

School children explore displays on school desks

Tamiko joins other women who are walking while
boycotting use of the Montgomery bus system (KSS)

Sit-in at a lunch counter

1963 March on Washington, to listen to the speech of
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr: I Have a Dream (KSS)

Alabama State Troopers wait at the end of the
Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma in 1965

A graph shows the number of Blacks elected to state and
federal office, which has not again reached the
numbers seen during Reconstruction

Black Americans developed their own culture after
having their heritage stripped away through slavery

The Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike in 1968, started
on March 12 and lasted until April 16; Dr Martin Luther King, Jr
participated several times, and gave his speech,
I Have Been to the Mountaintop, the evening of April 3;
his assassination the next day intensified the strike

The sanitation strikers wore "I am a Man" signs to
assert that they were human beings who
deserved equality, dignity, and respect

A Greyhound bus representing the one that was bombed
in Anniston, AL while carrying the Freedom Riders in 1961

A peek out at the balcony where
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr last stood

Room 306, where Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was
staying has been preserved as it was April 4, 1968

Lifting Up the Light: A Tribute to Tyre Nichols, who was
fatally beaten in January 2023 by Black Memphis
police officers after a traffic stop that may have been
questionable, in 2023  (Nichols was a skateboarder) (KSS)

A bottle tree on the way to the Arcade Restaurant

The Arcade Restaurant (founded 1919, building 1925)
is the oldest café in Memphis

The interior was renovated in the 1950s

The grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich was
the standard order of Elvis Presley, a regular here

Kent has a turkey club sandwich that had
the requisite three slices of bread

Memphis reconditioned Melbourne trolley #455
at the Central Station of the Main Street Line

Crown bike rack (by Suzy Hendrix) in the
area where the 1866 Memphis Massacre
occurred: a mob of white men led by law
enforcement attacked Black people, resulting
in 47 deaths and >100 buildings burned

I Am a Man Mural (2014, by Marcellous Lovelace)

Jay (2014, by Lance Turner) was made for the
deceased grunge musician Jimmy Lindsey

Another reconditioned Melbourne trolley #539

Taking Care of Business (date and artist unknown)

We received the assistance of Safety Officer Jada, who used her walkie talkie, then cell phone to find a missing train mural. I have since found the location and it is gone.

African Americans from Memphis
(2016, by Michael Roy and Derrick Dent)

Statue (2017, by Andrea Lugar)
of Bobby "Blue" Bland, a member  of the
Blues Hall of Fame, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
and Memphis Music Hall of Fame

Orpheum Theatre (1927-1928, by C W and George L Rapp)

Beale Street Neon Arch (a Roadside America attraction)

Statue (1997, by Andrea Lugar) of
Elvis Presley (a Roadside America attraction)

Beale Street aka Home of the Blues has
three blocks of restaurants, shops, and
nightclubs, offering delta blues,
jazz, rock 'n' roll, R&B and gospel music;
BB King's Blues Club (KSS)

Beale Street was also home to many black-owned businesses

Jerry Lawler, a professional wrestler from Memphis,
has his own restaurant (KSS)

I Have Been to the Mountaintop (1977, by Richard Hunt)
at the Dr Martin Luther King, Jr Reflection Park (2018)

WLOK Radio Station (1977) was the city's first
African-American owned radio station

Upstanders Mural (2016, by Cedar Nordbye and
Nelson Gutierrez) portrays people who "embraced the
challenge to speak out, stand up for others, and make
decisions that have helped to create a more inclusive,
just, and compassionate Memphis

Sun Studio (1950) is considered the birthplace of
rock and roll, partly because this is where
Elvis Presley had his start recording hits
(a Roadside America attraction)

Mason Temple (1940-1945, in Art Moderne style) is the
headquarters for the Church of God in Christ, the
second largest Black denomination; it was here that
Dr Martin Luther King, Jr showed his support for the
sanitation worker strike, and gave his last speech
(I Have Been to the Mountaintop) before being assassinated

Next: Graceland.