"Early evening, April 4...

..a shot rings out in the Memphis sky" It's one of the most beloved U2 songs of my youth but I never thought about what it meant.

There wasn't that much on our to-see list in Memphis. Walk across the railway bridge over the river, visit Beale Street, and see the National Civil Rights Museum. 

We parked on the street car route and enjoyed the peacefulness of this street. It was only 2 blocks to the museum.

Then we rounded the corner and saw this:

What the heck? Is this real? Every American knows this motel, this sign. 

They didn't just build a civil rights museum, they preserved the location of MLK's shooting as the setting for the museum. There were even cars from the 60s parked under his balcony.

 

Since he was meeting here with friends, and had bunch of followers (and the FBI was very suspicious of him!) someone was there with a camera and got a picture the moment after, with his friends pointing across the street where the shot came from.

The upper right window of the building across ths street was where the shot came from, and the building is now part of the museum. That part of the museum is only about MLK and the killer's story, the main museum covers the history of American slaves up until today.

MLK was sharing a room with a friend. You cannot go in the room.

Across the street, the museum left the room as the shooter left it, window cracked.

It was depressing to read this history of progress and setbacks. There was a bus you could get on and a recording would tell you where to sit, which is in regard to the Supreme Court case mentioned in the placard below.

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