"museums of interest are located in Memphis, including the National Civil Rights Museum, located in the former Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. It includes a historical overview of the American civil rights movement, ranging from the abolishment of slavery to more modern themes such the GLBT movement. On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a yearly parade and celebration happens outside the room where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. The National Ornamental Metal Museum is the only museum in North America dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of fine metalwork. The site is situated on a"
"buried at Memorial Park Funeral Home & Cemetery after all of the home going services were concluded. 1968: Distinguishes himself as an ardent fighter for human rights and other civil conflicts and becomes a part of the Civil Rights Movement, preaching fervently that love and peace must prevail if America is to survive. Involved in the strike of 1968 that centered on black sanitation workers in Memphis. Mr. Chairman I Nominate Jesus is recorded in Memphis during a live broadcast of the G. E. Patterson Evangelistic Crusade hour. In this particular infamous sermon that is appropriate for any political season,"
"1968, the Memphis sanitation strike began for living wages and better working conditions; the workers were overwhelmingly African American. They marched to gain public awareness and support for their plight: the danger of their work, and the struggles to support families with their low pay. Their drive for better pay had been met with resistance by the city government. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, known for his leadership in the non-violent movement, came to lend his support to the workers' cause. He stayed at the Lorraine Motel in the city, where he was assassinated"
"Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson Jimmie Lee Jackson (December 16, 1938 – February 26, 1965) was an African American civil rights activist in Marion, Alabama and a deacon in the Baptist church. On February 18, 1965, while participating in a peaceful voting rights march in his city, he was beaten by troopers and shot by Alabama State Trooper James Bonard Fowler. Jackson was unarmed and died eight days later in the hospital. His death was part of the inspiration for the Selma to Montgomery marches in March 1965, a major event in the Civil Rights Movement that helped gain Congressional"
"that the United States was moving toward separate white and black societies. Rev. James Lawson invited King to Memphis, Tennessee, in March 1968 to support a sanitation workers' strike. These workers launched a campaign for union representation after two workers were accidentally killed on the job; they were seeking fair wages and improved working conditions. King considered their struggle to be a vital part of the Poor People's Campaign he was planning. A day after delivering his stirring ""I've Been to the Mountaintop"" sermon, which has become famous for his vision of American society, King was assassinated on April 4,"
"Louis Ford, who would later become the presiding bishop of the church, officiated the service. In Chicago, Ford organized voter registration initiatives. He protested during the 1950s and 1960s against lodging segregation in Memphis, while participating in COGIC Holy Convocations there during the Civil Rights era before federal laws prohibiting such segregation. Medger Evers, the famed NAACP Field representative for the state of Mississippi who was gunned down in the front of his house in 1963 was raised in by his mother as a member of COGIC before later becoming a baptist. Ten years later on February 25, 1965, when"
"oratory. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other nonviolent means. At the time of his death, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and stopping the Vietnam War. King was backing the Memphis Sanitation Strike and organizing a mass occupation of Washington, D.C. – the Poor People's Campaign – when he was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. The official vision statement for the King Memorial notes: Harry E. Johnson, the President and Chief Executive Officer"
"Angeles riots. Rioting erupted again on 12th Street on April 4, 1968, hours after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the major civil rights leader, in Memphis, Tennessee. Riots erupted as well in 110 other US cities. Governor George W. Romney ordered the National Guard into Detroit to try to restore order. One person was killed, stores were vandalized, and several buildings were set on fire. Order was restored the following day. In July 1975, the white owner of a Livernois Avenue bar shot and killed a black 18-year-old. African Americans began to riot in protest, continuing for two"
"four nights in April 1968, after news arrived of the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King in Memphis Tennessee. Arson, looting and attacks on police ended with six people dead, 700 injured, and 5,800 rioters arrested. About a thousand businesses were ransacked or burned, especially liquor stores, supermarkets, furniture stores, and taverns. Many shops never reopened, leaving the burned-out districts permanently under-served by retail stores. Governor Spiro T. Agnew sent in 5,000 National Guardsmen and imposed an 11 p.m. curfew. That was not enough, so President Lyndon Johnson, at the governor's request, sent in 6,000 U.S. Army combat troops"
"4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel (now the National Civil Rights Museum) in Memphis, Tennessee. Three years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Malcolm X, was assassinated at the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965. Two years prior, another African-American civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, was assassinated on June 12, 1963. Fred Hampton of the Black Panther Party was assassinated on December 4, 1969. Liaquat Ali Khan, the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, was assassinated by Saad Akbar, a lone assassin, in 1951. Conspiracy theorists believe his conflict with certain members of the Pakistani military (Rawalpindi conspiracy) or suppression of"
"the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, a wave of riots struck urban, black areas of the United States. Though not as devastating as the riots in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, the riots in Pittsburgh damaged black areas economically and escalated tensions with the city police. Memphis's scorn also reflects a broader generational conflict on the topic of resistance that came to a head in the 1960s. Many older, southern-born blacks like Memphis had learned to survive by not stirring up trouble with the white establishment. Many in the younger generation, such as Sterling, viewed this"
"Benjamin Mays Benjamin Elijah Mays (August 1, 1894 – March 28, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the African-American civil rights movement. Mays taught and mentored many influential activists: Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, and Donn Clendenon, among others. His rhetoric and intellectual work focused on notions of nonviolence and civil resistance–beliefs inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The peak of his public influence occurred during his almost thirty years as the 6th President of Morehouse College, a historically black institution of higher"
"opening. It was the location of Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous last speech: ""I've Been to the Mountaintop"", on April 3, 1968; King was assassinated the next day. Mason Temple Mason Temple, in Memphis, Tennessee, is a Christian international sanctuary and central headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, the largest African American Pentecostal group in the world. The building was named for Bishop Charles Harrison Mason, founder of the Church of God in Christ, who is entombed in a marble crypt inside the Temple. The Temple was dedicated in 1945, to replace the original ""Tabernacle"" which burned down"
"of Garrison's work and activism. Memphis Tennessee Garrison Memphis Tennessee Garrison (March 3, 1890- July 25, 1988) was an activist for African Americans and young women during the Jim Crow Era in rural West Virginia. Garrison was a McDowell County teacher and community mediator, famous for organizing West Virginia's third chapter of the Gary Branch of the NAACP in 1921. Additionally, from 1931-1946, Garrison was the community mediator for U.S. Steel Gary Mines. Some of Garrison's other notable achievements range from establishing the Gary Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to organizing Girl Scout troops"
"family still attends the Shady Grove Baptist Church and are very active in the community. Vernon Dahmer Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, Sr. (March 10, 1908 – January 10, 1966) was a leader with the Civil Rights Movement and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for his work on recruiting African Americans to vote. Vernon Dahmer was born on March 10, 1908, in the Kelly Settlement, Forrest County, Mississippi to Ellen Louvenia (Kelly) and George Washington Dahmer. George Dahmer was described as an honest,"
"Larry Payne Larry Payne was a sixteen-year old African American teenager who was killed following a march in support of the Memphis Sanitation Strike on Thursday, March 28, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee He was the only fatality on that day although the ""New Pittsburgh Courier"" reported 60 injured and 276 arrested. Martin Luther King Jr. called Payne's mother, Lizzie Payne, on the phone to console her after her son's brutal death at the hands of Patrolman Leslie Dean Jones. Conflicting accounts describe the looting that occurred in tandem with the march on Thursday March 28 1968 that led to a"
"mother, moved to Flint, Michigan. Larry Payne Larry Payne was a sixteen-year old African American teenager who was killed following a march in support of the Memphis Sanitation Strike on Thursday, March 28, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee He was the only fatality on that day although the ""New Pittsburgh Courier"" reported 60 injured and 276 arrested. Martin Luther King Jr. called Payne's mother, Lizzie Payne, on the phone to console her after her son's brutal death at the hands of Patrolman Leslie Dean Jones. Conflicting accounts describe the looting that occurred in tandem with the march on Thursday March 28"
"Vernon Dahmer Vernon Ferdinand Dahmer, Sr. (March 10, 1908 – January 10, 1966) was a leader with the Civil Rights Movement and president of the Forrest County chapter of the NAACP in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He was murdered by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan for his work on recruiting African Americans to vote. Vernon Dahmer was born on March 10, 1908, in the Kelly Settlement, Forrest County, Mississippi to Ellen Louvenia (Kelly) and George Washington Dahmer. George Dahmer was described as an honest, hardworking farmer of integrity. His mother Ellen Kelly was biracial because of her mother, Henrietta."
"J. Wyeth Chandler J. Wyeth Chandler (ca. 1930 – November 11, 2004) served as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee from 1972 to 1982. He was the adopted son of former Memphis mayor and U.S. Representative Walter Chandler. Chandler succeeded the controversial Henry Loeb, who battled local sanitation workers during a strike that brought Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis in April 1968. This violence-ridden episode in the city's history resulted in King's death by assassin James Earl Ray on April 4. Chandler spent much of his tenure dealing with the economic and social fallout from the strike and the killing, as"
"signed by a U.S. president. The petition was sent once more in 2012 to U.S. President Barack Obama, yet failed to be awarded. Benjamin Mays Benjamin Elijah Mays (August 1, 1894 – March 28, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the African-American civil rights movement. Mays taught and mentored many influential activists: Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, and Donn Clendenon, among others. His rhetoric and intellectual work focused on notions of nonviolence and civil resistance–beliefs inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. The peak"
"course of the strike. The strike thus came to represent the broader struggle for equality within Memphis, whose many black residents lived disproportionately in poverty. ""I Am A Man!"" emerged as a unifying civil rights theme. Before he died on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. also took an active role in mass meetings and street actions. He first visited the Memphis strike on March 18, speaking to an audience of thousands at Mason Temple. A demonstration on March 28 (with King in attendance) turned violent when some protesters started breaking windows. Some held signs reading ""LOEB EAT SHIT""."
"Memphis, where he was assassinated. Memphis's mayor, Henry Loeb, declared the strike illegal and refused to meet with local black leaders (he did meet with AFSCME's national officers). Heavily redacted files released in 2012 suggest that the FBI monitored the strike and increased its operations in Memphis during 1968. The city of Memphis had a long history of segregation and unfair treatment for black residents. The influential politician E. H. Crump had created a city police force, much of it culled from the Ku Klux Klan, that acted violently toward the black population and maintained Jim Crow. Blacks were excluded"
"James Bonard Fowler James Bonard Fowler (September 10, 1933 – July 5, 2015) was an American policeman who was a significant player in escalating the acute racial conflict that led to the Selma to Montgomery marches in the Civil Rights Movement. As a corporal in the Alabama State Police in 1965, he shot and killed an unarmed black man, Jimmie Lee Jackson, a killing that went without justice for 45 years. He was convicted of manslaughter decades after the incident. He was also under investigation by the FBI for the 1966 shooting death of a second black man, Nathan Johnson,"
"Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an African American civil rights activist in Mississippi, the state's field secretary of the NAACP, and World War II veteran, having served in the United States Army. He worked to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, to end segregation of public facilities, and to expand opportunities for African Americans, including enforcement of voting rights. He was assassinated by a white supremacist and Klansman. A college graduate, Evers became active in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. Following the 1954 ruling of the United States Supreme Court in"
"George W. Lee George Washington Lee (December 25, 1903 – May 7, 1955) was an African-American civil rights leader, minister, and entrepreneur. He was a vice president of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership and head of the Belzoni, Mississippi, branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He was assassinated in 1955 for organizing African Americans to try to register to vote. Since 1890 they had been effectively disenfranchised in Mississippi due to a new state constitution; other states across the South passed similar acts and constitutions, excluding millions of people from the political system and"
"in these cities were destroyed. The assassinations of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee and later of Robert Kennedy in Los Angeles in 1968 also led to nationwide rioting across the country with similar mass deaths. During the same time period, and since then, violent acts committed against African-American churches and their members have been commonplace. During the 1980s and '90s a number of riots occurred that were related to longstanding racial tensions between police and minority communities. The 1980 Miami riots were catalyzed by the killing of an African-American motorist by four white Miami-Dade Police officers. They"
"membership in Memphis, and allowed the strikers to use their union hall for meetings. Most white union leaders in Memphis feared the blackness of the strikers, and expressed concern about race riots. Tommy Powell, president of the Memphis Labor Council, was one of few local white advocates. King's assassination (April 4, 1968) intensified the strike. Mayor Loeb and others feared rioting, which had already begun in Washington, D.C., Federal officials, including Attorney General Ramsey Clark, urged Loeb to make concessions to the strikers in order to avoid violence. Loeb refused. On April 8, a completely silent march with the SCLC"
"on protesters. John Cross Jr. John H. Cross Jr. (January 27, 1925 – November 15, 2007) was an American pastor and Civil Rights activist. He was best known as the pastor of the 16th Street Baptist Church, an African American Baptist congregation in Birmingham, Alabama, at the time of church's racially motivated bombing in 1963. The bombing, which ripped through the church and killed four young girls, became a rallying cry for the Civil Rights Movement and propelled the problems of racial segregation in The South into the national spotlight. Cross spent much of the rest of his life working"
"Carmichael called for a more forceful response. The city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on terms favorable to the sanitation workers. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for the civil rights leader. Vice President Hubert Humphrey attended King's funeral on behalf of the President, as there were fears that Johnson's presence might incite protests and perhaps violence. At his widow's request, King's last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral, a recording of his ""Drum Major"" sermon, given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, King made a request that"
"William N. Morris William Noel ""Bill"" Morris (born 1932/1933) is a Tennessee politician who served as mayor of Shelby County, which includes Memphis, Tennessee. He also served as Sheriff of Shelby County. He was the president of the Tennessee County Services Association, an organization of county officials. Morris served as the sheriff of Shelby County from 1964 to 1970. During his tenure as sheriff, Morris was in charge of the custody of assassin James Earl Ray. Ray admitted while in custody to the 1968 murder of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. However, Ray later claimed he was"
"Memphis Tennessee Garrison Memphis Tennessee Garrison (March 3, 1890- July 25, 1988) was an activist for African Americans and young women during the Jim Crow Era in rural West Virginia. Garrison was a McDowell County teacher and community mediator, famous for organizing West Virginia's third chapter of the Gary Branch of the NAACP in 1921. Additionally, from 1931-1946, Garrison was the community mediator for U.S. Steel Gary Mines. Some of Garrison's other notable achievements range from establishing the Gary Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, to organizing Girl Scout troops for African American girls, to"
"hotels were racially segregated, and opposing team members were lodged at the funeral home. Lewis' sons Clarence Lewis and Robert Lewis Jr. took over the family business. Robert Lewis Jr. became a business leader in Memphis, and was noted for his efforts at establishing T. O. Fuller State Park. Other noted achievements include advocating for the hiring of the first African-American firefighters in Memphis in 1955, being the first African-American appointed to the city's Alcohol Beverage Commission, and establishing the first Cotton Makers Jubilee. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis on the evening of April 4, 1968. During"
"to formally observe their traditional parameters of non-violence. The Deacons were instrumental in other campaigns led by the Civil Rights Movement. Activist James Meredith organized the June 1966 March Against Fear, to go from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. He wanted a low-key affair, but was shot and wounded early in the march. Other major civil rights leaders and organizations recruited hundreds and then thousands of marchers in order to continue Meredith's effort. According to in a 1999 article, activist Stokely Carmichael encouraged having the Deacons provide security for the remainder of the march. After some debate, many civil rights"