Memphis

Steve and I both agree that Memphis was the most interesting spot on our cross country trip. This segment of our trip was dedicated to the Civil Rights Era and it's history. The day before we arrived in Memphis, we stopped at the plantation of Andrew Jackson. We learned about the slaves who lived and worked in the fields as well as in the house. We heard their heart breaking stories of being traded, with mothers being taken from their children and sold to a new land owner because the Jackson's used them as human currency to pay off debts. In Memphis our first stop was a museum that originally was a stop of the underground railroad. We drove through a "questionable" part of town to get to this "off the beaten path jewel" of a museum and pulled up in front of a small clapboard home, with a driveway over grown and a small museum sign that looked homemade. While the family waited in the car, I went around back, looking for an entrance, a little unsure of what I might find. A huge black man in African robes greeted me and I asked him about his museum. He was full of enthusiasm and the entrance fee was small so we decided to take a chance and we joined his tour. The moment on our trip turned out to be our most memorable. Our guide, with slave roots, taught us about the slave trade, the world's largest cemetery, which is the Pacific Ocean, life on a plantation, attempted slave escapes and how the underground railroad worked. His presentation was fascinating. We then followed him to the cellar where slaves on the run squoze through a small hole in the foundation and waited in the dark basement until it was safe to continue running. On our way out of this small museum, we bought watermelon, which was a fruit common to the slaves. We were so happy that we had found this little spot in Memphis.

Our next stop for the day was the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King was shot. It is now the National Civil Rights Museum, which was the perfect extension of our African American experience.

We sat in the bus that Rosa Parks rode in, learned about the freedom riders of the 60's and toured the room that Martin Luther King spent his last night in, among other historical events during the Civil Right's Movement.

After more Southern BBQ, we left Tennessee in the evening, with enough to talk about from the Civil Rights Movement to get us all the way to Dallas late that night. We were grateful for our freedoms and the progress that our country has made.