Memphis: Ramblin’ n Tourin’

Mississippi River city. Blues, Barbecue, Graceland. Nineteen sixty-eight, the horror of the Lorraine Motel amid a year of horrors.

Truth to tell, Memphis has not been on my so-called “bucket list.” But to be here on an anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination gives added resonance.

So after a lazy-slow start, we walk a few blocks from the Peabody and its world famous ducks to Beale Street, sleepy slow on a Sunday morning. Then cut down to Main Street a few more blocks up to the National Civil Rights Museum, built on the site where Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Neither words nor images can truly convey the museum’s impact. We spent the entire afternoon there. Then we walked slowly back to Beale for dinner and music and an early evening.

The Peabody Ducks draw big crowds at both 11:00 when they come on "duty," and at 5:00 when they are taken back to their penthouse.

A couple of kids are designated honorary duck wranglers for the ceremony

An mage on Beale Street

Statue of W. C. Handy

Rosa bows before "The King."

South Main Street is both picturesque and about to emerge as an arts center.

This was the cry of the strikers in Memphis in 1968 who Dr. King was here to support.

The Lorraine Motel, site of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The motel site was being spiffed up for the ceremonies around the anniversary of his death on April 4. We were there the day before. Dr. King was standing just about where the fellow in the red shirt is when the shot rang out from across the street.

He was shot right in front of room 306. Dr King was staying in 307 to the right and out of the image

I made this image in the first gallery on slavery in America. The statue is of a dealer selling a slave and her child. But in front of me, this young man was reading one of the exhibit labels, unaware of the irony of his pose. I did not want to simply take the picture, so I asked and explained why. So the image is a bit posed.