One of the things that struck me the most during this visit was a woman who set up a booth outside the Civil Rights Museum. As per the tradition set forth by Dr. King, she was engaging in non-confrontational, nonviolent protest. Her banners read, "You are about to desecrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King," and "Boycott the National Civil Rights Museum Now!"
At first I was shocked that someone would dare to make such a controversial statement at a place meant to memorialize the memory of Dr. King and all he stood for, practically at the front door of the museum. But then I decided to take the time and actually evaluate her arguments. What I found surprised me more than I could have anticipated.
Apparently, before Dr. King was shot and the museum was built, the area surrounding the Lorraine Motel was a lower-income, predominantly black area. The Lorraine Motel housed not only guests, but residents. When the museum was built, the residents were forced out of the motel. Adding insult to injury for these residents, the lower income housing was demolished and replaced with high-rise condominiums that none of the area residents would be able to afford.
The displacement of the people originally residing in the neighborhood surrounding the Lorraine Motel is the result of a phenomenon called gentrification. Basically, wealthier people buy up housing in a low-income area and raise rents to the point that the original tenants can no longer afford to live there. While the physical space may become more attractive, the end result is that low income housing is lost. People who may have been living in an area for years and years suddenly find themselves without a home or a neighborhood.
The last resident of the Lorraine Motel, Jacqueline Smith, refused to leave her residence of several years and barricaded herself inside the motel. She was forcibly removed. Ever since, she has protested outside of the Civil Rights Museum. She argues that Dr. King would not have wanted his legacy used to perpetuate the gap between the rich and the poor, that the site of his death would be better put to use as a low-cost college, clinic, or workforce development site.
While I didn't boycott the museum, I did keep Smith's arguments in mind during my tour. I expected to find a reminder of our past and admonitions for the future. Unfortunately, I found much of the former and none of the latter.
During a film I viewed at the museum, one of Dr. King's friends recounted King's deep compassion for the poor and his commitment to redressing economic disparities. In fact, during King's last fatal stay at the Lorraine Motel, he was part of a rally for the Memphis sanitation workers, whose wages were so low that they couldn't afford housing. During that time, King was also involved in a march on Washington, where he and hundreds of other people committed to living in a tent city in Washington, DC, until the government engaged in economic reform.
I found it saddening and ironic that there, at the very site where this great man died because of his deep compassion for the poor, King's legacy was being used as an excuse to displace the very people he came to help. There, where this visionary was gunned down, stands a tomb in memorial of a movement that has yet to reach completion. Sadly, there was no vision for the future contained within this museum, no call to action for our generation.
During King's last speech, known as the "Mountaintop Speech," King said, "...I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."
So I ask you: Does the National Civil Rights Museum fulfill King's legacy? Or is it simply a monument to a promised land that we have yet to reach?
The balcony where King was shot.
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