Day 12 (4/6/23): Memphis

Laura's Post (belatedly posted 7 months later)

Wow, I can't believe the last day of our journey. We were immersed in the rich history of Memphis, and some of the themes and lessons we had been learning were really illuminated during an amazing 2-hour breakfast at the Arcade Diner, one of the last surviving restaurants in this downtown neighborhoods of Memphis. We had the extreme honor of meeting with 4 heroes of the current day struggle to tell the truth about Black history in our nation. We met with Randy, Habiba, Iris and Sam, prior co-workers of our dear family friend Randall Mullins, all working on unearthing the history of and commemorating the lynchings that occurred in Memphis from Reconstruction on through the Lynching Site Project. We were given a gift by these four incredible individuals:

We moved from there to a spirited tour on foot through the streets of Memphis, led by Randy, our local historian, first on foot through the streets, intermittently singing, "Can't Turn Me Around" in the driving rain. We stopped at the church where the "I am a Man" sanitation worker strike that brought Dr. King to Memphis in his final days started, to the Ida B. Wells park and several of the lynching site markers that Randy and his team have worked diligently and persistently to erect. This is the story Ida B. Wells took on in the 1890's when she watched her dear friend Thomas Moss, a local Black grocery store owner, be lynched simply because he was causing competition for the White grocer. And yet the age-old propaganda that Black men are sexual predators was loosely used as justification for his killing. Ida B. Wells, using her platform as a journalist, called bullshit to this myth, a truth that caused her newspaper to be burned to the ground and caused her to have to flee town. 

I am struck again by how much resistance this group has met (from city park officials, local businesses, individuals), just to try and tell the story. There is clearly power in this story, and I think subconsciously or not, many of the White institutions of power must understand that to hear the whole truth would call into question our entire power structure, as it should. Randy and his team are working so hard ... 

Full of history and gratitude, we ended our time in Memphis by honoring Dr. King's last days. The hotel where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968 has been turned into a Civil Rights Museum. As we walked through together, it's amazing how we have come to recognize many of the faces and stories on these walls over the past 2 weeks. I spent years reading and learning about the stories of the Civil Rights movement in the South (about 4,000 pages), but what we have learned by tracing the path over these two weeks has been exponentially more than we ever could have learned from a book. Looking at the pictures on the wall of the museum, it's still impossible for us not to get choked up. 

I feel Dr. King knew his end was coming. He had mounting threats in the weeks leading up to his death, and the speech me made the night before he died was chilling; he basically gave his own eulogy. Rumor has it he was not feeling well, and not planning on attending the rally, but the crowd that had amassed was large and they were expecting him, so someone from his team came and got him and brought him to the church. I recommend you listen to the whole speech because it's incredible, but here's an excerpt of the Mountaintop Speech. 

As we ended our time at the museum, I knew but was not prepared for viewing the balcony where he took his last breath. As the story goes, he was standing on the railing calling down to the musician who would be playing at the upcoming rally, and he requested his favorite song by Mahalia Jackson, "Precious Lord, Take My Hand." As we walked through this part of the museum, that is what was playing overhead. As we have hopefully highlighted for you, Dr. King was only one person among thousands who encompassed this movement, but he was regardless a phenomenal human who inspired millions then, and just as many today. 

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s final words to the public: 

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because 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! 

And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man!  

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!"