Memphis – National Civil Rights Museum (Room 306)

A visit to the marvellous National Civil Rights Museum ends, I think quite abruptly, with room 306. On the balcony outside this room, Martin Luther King was assassinated on 4 April 1968.

One of my political heroes and perhaps the greatest American of the twentieth century, I’ve also been on a tour of his birthplace home in Atlanta.

King’s room, untouched since he was killed. Today, there is plexiglass allowing visitors to look into the room and this is all integrated into the modern new museum building. It’s quite a sobering way to end a tour of the museum, a reminder of the fight that the civil rights movement has had for so long.

The bathroom of room 306. The plexiglass that has been used is quite unforgiving when taking photographs and it’s hard not to get reflections.

The balcony where Martin Luther King was shot.