We both grew up naive about Civil Rights issues, knowing their seriousness but not appreciating how deep the attitudes of so many people were on the issues. We started out on our precious venture leaving the Northwest and immediately started finding references to the Underground Railroad in Indiana with Levi Coffin and in Cincinnati with the Freedom Museum. In Detroit we visited the Motown Museum and Ford Museum to learn about the struggles of blacks in a white world. The themes were repeated everywhere we went, and as we moved south the history of slavery came to the forefront along with the Civil War. Our education on Civil Rights was further expanded when we hit the deep south visiting museums and memorials in Atlanta, Birmingham and Tuskeegee. When we arrived in Memphis we had learned that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel and wanted to visit the site.
The National Civil Rights Museum is connected to the motel and brought into amazing clarity the history of civil rights issues for blacks from first African slaves shipped to colonial America to the death of Martin Luther King Jr. All the previous information we had learned about Civil Rights was laid out in an organized timeline of events displayed in charts, displays, videos that filled in all the gaps we had in our knowledge of the history of Civil Rights for Blacks in America.
Really a memorable experience to see the history of Black Civil Rights from first being slaves in our country to the present day situation, we were both moved. Our travels around this nation have shown us the strength of the people of our great country. They have also peeled back the veneer and shown us our weakness. We believe all in our wonderful country must work hard to guarantee equality to all those whose Civil Rights are threatened!
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How wonderful, and informative for us, that you’re including so many key civil-rights locales and memorials and museums in your travels ! There are more than we’d imagined. And we’ve learned that even though we were alive and (we thought) aware during the late ’50’s, ’60’s etc, there’s a whale of a lot of detail we didn’t know. So thank you – again.
Also – don’t you love those ’50’s colors on signs (cars, clothes, buildings too) – Whatever happened to teal and pink and blue and bright red and yellow? Too much solemn gray today.