International Experts on Race Visit Civil Rights Museum

Memphis, Tennessee -- "I was very moved by what I saw here, even though I knew the basic story of the American civil rights movement," said David Sam of Norway. "I knew little about the details of that struggle," said Rosanna Wong from Hong Kong.

They were talking about the National Civil Rights Museum located on the site of the former Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. The museum not only honors King's memory, it houses a comprehensive overview of the U.S. civil rights movement.

The international visitors were in Oxford, Mississippi to attend a conference on "International Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity and Intercultural Relations," held April 18-22 at the University of Mississippi. While there, however, they took time out to visit the museum located about 70 miles north of Oxford in Memphis, Tennessee.

The main exhibits are vignettes capturing pivotal moments in the struggle of African Americans for equal rights in the United States, including the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that outlawed school segregation, the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott that led to the ending of segregation in public transport, and the 1963 March on Washington at which King gave his electrifying "I Have A Dream" speech."

Exhibits recreating the freedom rides, student sit-ins and other nonviolent tactics that were the hallmark of the Movement also are featured prominently at the museum. There also is a component highlighting the failed attempts immediately after the American Civil War (1861-65) to end discrimination. Many of the international visitors did not know, for example, that three civil rights acts were passed in the 10 years after the Civil War ended, but were circumvented in the South. Not until 1964 was a Civil Rights Act passed that was effective.

The modern U.S. civil rights movement was ignited on December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama when a tired, hard-working African American named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, as required then by state law. Parks' act of defiance might have been in vain had not a young Baptist minister, Martin Luther King, Jr., seized the moment and led a 382-day struggle to integrate the city's public transportation system.

Although he never underestimated the resistance, King had no doubt about the eventual outcome of the fight. "It is one of the splendid ironies of our day that Montgomery, the cradle of the Confederacy, is being transformed into Montgomery, the cradle of freedom and justice," he said. A year later, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregated buses were unconstitutional. In 1954, the Court had outlawed segregated public education.

Thus began the epic journey of Martin Luther King, Jr. from Montgomery, Alabama to Memphis, Tennessee. In his 13-year quest for racial justice, King traveled the land -- North and South, East and West -- to proclaim his vision of a society free of racism and prejudice. When he arrived in this city in the spring of 1968, Memphis seemed no different than Birmingham or Chicago or any of the other cities in which local leaders had asked for his help.

Characteristically, he had come to Memphis to champion the cause of those on the lowest rung of the ladder fighting for their rights -- in this case, the city's sanitation workers who were overwhelmingly African American. King felt they were laboring under unjust and unfair conditions, were discriminated against, and were poorly paid. "Memphis is not being fair to them," he remarked.

Although the situation here was tense in the spring of 1968 and there had been many incidents, it was nothing new for the man who had come to embody the civil rights cause in America. King had become used to angry mobs, repressive police action, and to threats on his life. But it was clear that there was something different about his demeanor in Memphis on that April day 33 years ago.

King seemed to have a premonition that his own role in the civil rights struggle was coming to an end, something that became apparent to everyone who saw or listened to his final speech given in the Masonic Temple the night before he was shot.

"I don't know what will happen now," he said. "We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now because I've been to the mountain top. 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."

King spoke those words just hours before his life ended. Although he did not survive his visit to this city, his message clearly did and it remains a living force in the lives of millions of Americans who are inspired by his vision. Many of the international visitors said they, too, had been inspired by King's work and had thought about the application of his example to their own countries.

Sandra Harmon, a spokesperson for the museum, said that each year more and more overseas visitors come to the museum. "There is great interest in Dr. King's work overseas as well as here," she said. "In recognition of that, the exhibit narratives will soon be available not just in English, but in 10 other languages," she added.

And so, more than three decades after his death, the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. continues to impact people's lives around the world -- and point the way to a future that will be free of racism.