The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel

This was one of the most interesting, unique museums I've ever been to, and one of the coolest things we did on our trip. As a Martin Luther King admirer, I was initially worried that it might be too sad and depressing to see the place where he was shot. But I'm glad we went there. It was poignant, but somehow visiting it felt more inspiring and positive than sad. The pokey, shabby, totally ordinary quality of the motel really brought home the truth that, yes, Martin Luther King was a real person, and despite all the great things he accomplished, he was still just a man staying at a crummy hotel, just like any other regular person. In a weird way, this realization makes his achievements even more impressive. He wasn't a superhero, he wasn't magical...he was a human being who was called to greatness and who was brave enough to answer the call.

Here are some "fun facts" from their website:

Originally named the Windsor Hotel c. 1925.

Renamed Marquette Hotel in 1945 and offered for sale.

Purchased by Walter Bailey in 1945 and renamed the Lorraine, after his wife Loree and a song titled “Sweet Lorraine.” At the time of purchase the Lorraine included 16 rooms, a café, and living quarters for the Baileys.

The Lorraine became one of only a few hotels to which African American travelers could enjoy overnight accommodations while traveling during this segregated period leading up to the late 1960s in America.

Under the Bailey’s ownership there were at least two major additions to the hotel. The first addition added a second floor and 12 rooms to the hotel while the next addition created even more guest rooms and drive up access. This change converted the Lorraine Hotel into a motel.

Guests of the Lorraine, both black and white, returned time and again for its upscale atmosphere, home cooked meals, including bar-b-que, affordable prices, and its reputation as a clean and safe environment.

Song writers and musicians working with the Stax Records Company were frequent residents of the Lorraine. Recording stars Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Aretha Franklin, Ethel Waters, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers and Wilson Picket were among the many that stayed in the Lorraine during the heyday of the late 1950s- early 1960s.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stayed at the Lorraine Motel numerous times. He was a guest of the Lorraine when he came to Memphis in 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers.

The Lorraine Motel is designated an historic site by the Tennessee Historical Commission.
History of the National Civil Rights Museum

The National Civil Rights Museum was birthed out of the success of the civil rights movement and the tragic violence that occurred at the Lorraine Motel, taking the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The aftershock of the assassination on April 4, 1968 eventually plunged the Lorraine into a long and steep decline. The motel’s owner, Walter Lane Bailey maintained two rooms – Rooms 306 & 307 - as a shrine to Dr. King and in memory of his wife Loree who died days after the assassination.

Realizing the symbolic significance of the Lorraine, Mr. Bailey reached out for help to maintain the property as a civil rights shrine. He reached out to Mr. Chuck Scruggs, program director of local radio station WDIA radio and the Save The Lorraine campaign was born.

A group of prominent Memphians, concerned that this historical site would be destroyed through continued neglect and indifference, formed the Martin Luther King Memorial Foundation and in 1984 changed its name to the Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation.

Under the leadership of local attorney and activist, D’Army Bailey, the Foundation raised enough money to purchase the property on the courthouse steps at a public auction for $144,000.

Using a design report by former Smithsonian Institution curator, Benjamin Lawless, the Foundation moved forward to create the educational facility and memorial site that today is the National Civil Rights Museum.

The Museum was dedicated on July 4, 1991 and officially opened to the public on Sept. 28, 1991. Since opening the museum records more than 5 million to the site.

In 1999 the Museum acquired properties facing it, the former Canipe’s Amusement store and rooming house, which were an integral part of Dr. King’s assassination investigation. In 1968, James Earl Ray stayed in the rooming house.

The museum became custodian of the police and evidence files associated with the manhunt, indictment and confession of the assassin of Dr. King. This transfer affords the National Civil Right Museum the distinction of being the first museum of its kind to receive evidence materials and court documents connected with a criminal case into its collection holdings.

Opened to the public on Sept. 28, 2002, Exploring the Legacy, is a 12,800 sq. ft. expansion project aimed at addressing three key questions: 1) Did the Movement die with Dr. King? 2) Was James Earl Ray the assassin? and, 3) What is the legacy of the movement?

From: http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/home.htm

Hostile Anime Takeover

Oooh, watch out, Japan! I've never really gotten the appeal of anime, myself. But clearly there is major money in it:

China making anime push as Japan hits slump

By TOMOKO A. HOSAKA (AP) – 21 hours ago

TOKYO — Yoko Komazawa had been at the Tokyo International Anime Fair for nearly six hours when she fell in love with a brown-and-white stuffed panda — a character in one of the fair's featured cartoons.

"It's so adorable and interesting," she said, staring into its gleaming pink eyes. "I want it."

Unfortunately, the panda wasn't for sale and Komazawa had to settle for a photo. But she walked away from the small booth impressed by the panda's creators — from China.

"Japan is certainly an amazing anime country," said the 30-something anime fan and collector of all things cute and cuddly. "China has some intriguing characters though. They're different, and that definitely catches my attention."

Komazawa's enthusiasm for something new is a small victory for China's fledgling animation industry, and could well represent a widening crack in Japan's global anime dominance. Japan may be the birthplace of anime, but China is gunning for its future as it mounts an aggressive effort to expand the country's creative prowess and reputation.

In November, the government's cultural arm established the China Animation Comic Group Co. to foster a "great leap forward" in animation production, technology and marketing. Part of the plan includes building a "China Animation Game City" in Beijing that would be a national hub...

China's growing ambitions coincide with an ominous industrywide slump in Japan.

After peaking in 2006, the number of anime minutes made for television fell 20 percent to 108,342 in 2009, according to the Association of Japanese Animations. A survey of the group's members shows that overseas anime revenue fell 21 percent between 2006 and 2009.

Happy Sunday

I like this sweet little song, and Sunday feels like the appropriate day to post it. I admire the direct, sincere way that Johnny Cash sings this song. But, as Guy pointed out...turns out Johnny was wrong about the Hall of Fame part!

Well, you talk about important people that you say you know.
Presidents and superstars of big television shows.
Well, I know someone personally who's bigger than 'em all,
And next to him your superstars look mighty small.
And I have a talk with him each day, and he's interested in every word I say.
No secretary ever tells me he's been called away. I talk to Jesus every day.

Well now I don't think that I'll ever be in any Hall of Fame,
And the social register of wealthy folks might drop my name.
But my name is written in the Book of Life, I'm proud to say,
And that's all that really matters anyway.
And I talk to Jesus every day, and he's interested in every word I say.
No secretary ever tells me he's been called away. I talk to Jesus every day.
I talk to Jesus every day.

Maybe I'm Amazed

"Amazed Cat" is the latest Internet star making the usual rounds. I haven't seen an animal do anything this impressive since the dramatically-reacting Prairie Dog of 2007:

The Wordy Shipmates

If there is ever a time when you really, really want a good book to read, it's during a long plane ride. Personally, the only two activities I am able to somewhat enjoy on planes are 1) sleeping, and 2) reading. The problem with the first option is that it's often too uncomfortable on planes to sleep. With the second option, it's important to choose the right kind of good book. I've made the mistake before of telling myself: what better time to attempt a very challenging, difficult book than on an hours-long plane ride with nothing else to do?

The problem with this--I have found out the hard way--is that it's pretty hard to concentrate while traveling, even if you do have hours and hours to kill. Better to choose a book that is easily engrossing and will gain your immediate and lasting attention.

Sarah Vowell's latest book, The Wordy Shipmates, fits this bill nicely. I started it on vacation, but mostly read it on the plane ride home. The fun thing about her books is that they are substantive and intelligent, but also totally entertaining and easy to read. I learned a lot about early American history from reading this book. She is really, really funny too. (Oh, also: she voiced the character of Violet in The Incredibles, which was a very cute movie.) This is a review from Amazon:

"Starred Review. Essayist and public radio regular Vowell (Assassination Vacation) revisits America's Puritan roots in this witty exploration of the ways in which our country's present predicaments are inextricably tied to its past. In a style less colloquial than her previous books, Vowell traces the 1630 journey of several key English colonists and members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Foremost among these men was John Winthrop, who would become governor of Massachusetts. While the Puritans who had earlier sailed to Plymouth on the Mayflower were separatists, Winthrop's followers remained loyal to England, spurred on by Puritan Reverend John Cotton's proclamation that they were God's chosen people. Vowell underscores that the seemingly minute differences between the Plymouth Puritans and the Massachusetts Puritans were as meaningful as the current Sunni/Shia Muslim rift. Gracefully interspersing her history lesson with personal anecdotes, Vowell offers reflections that are both amusing (colonial history lesson via The Brady Bunch) and tender (watching New Yorkers patiently waiting in line to donate blood after 9/11). (Oct.)"

So long, suckers! or something

For all Tiny Miss Fran knows, Beebo and Guy are already back in the leggish arms of Deebo, fresh (or not so fresh) from their flight home from Pensacola. Still, she'll try to sneak in just one more posting (to join the many, many musings and bons mots she has shared with you during Beebo's hiatus-y thing) before probably scuttling all memory of Beebo's username and login.

What better way to bid adieu to you, readers, and bienvenue to la Beebeau than with a picture of Edith Prickley?



TMF is pretty sure Edith Prickley had some kind of trademark sign-off, but she is too lazy/Internets-impaired to track down what that might be. She thinks it started with an S. Sayonara? See you later, sweetie? Say a prayer for me, sir?

Oh wells, y'all will have Miss Beebo back for good pretty soon. Bye!

Signed,
Tiny Miss Fran

Cracker Barrel

I finally got to go to a Cracker Barrel for the first time ever here in Alabama. The hostess was a cute petite girl named Angel. She asked if we'd been to Cracker Barrel many times before--I think she must have overheard me effusing about it--and I said, "This is my first time!" and she said, "Ever??" and I said, "Yes! I'm excited!" and she said, "I'm excited for you!"

I ordered the chicken fried chicken (that's not a typo; it's like chicken fried steak except instead of steak, it's chicken. But it's not fried chicken because that would be on the bone. This was a fillet) and it came with three "vegetables" of my choice.

The list of vegetables made my mouth water, but also made me laugh, because Alabama is one of those places where the definition of "vegetable" is "anything that's not meat." So I got to choose between things like fried okra, corn, and green beans, as well as the more loosely defined "vegetables" such as mac-n-cheese, baked beans, and dumplings.

I went with mac-n-cheese, beans, and potato casserole. It was gooo-oooo-oooood!