Martin Luther King Junior

I felt like these photographs deserved their own post. Our last stop in Memphis was the Civil Rights Museum. They utilized the 'Lorraine Motel' (the place where King was shot while standing out on his balcony), as the setting for the museum. The museum was an incredible educational experience. They did a wonderfully thorough job of explaining the history and progression of the civil rights movement within our country. The first part of the museum ended in the motel room where King was last alive. The glass doors you see in the photographs were placed so those of us traveling through the museum could easily view the place where he was shot. There were still blood stains on the balcony. There is apart of me that would like to say that the experience of taking part in the 'viewing pleasure' of such an incredible person's death felt exploitative.... instead i have to say i felt that it was so tactfully done... that it felt almost meditative. The juxtaposition of seeing the place where King's life had ended while standing in the midst of a school group of african american children talking loudly- as elementary students do... felt simply real ... and as though... King himself would have been smiling. Yet, after crossing the street and viewing the recently opened details of the murder case and looking out the window where they believe the shooter stood... i felt overwhelmed. I felt so haunted for the rest of the day - and since- by where our country has been in the past... and by where it so often seems to be in the present. The entire experience made me ache for a man i had never met.