Tennessee - Day 22 - Memphis

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park
Friday, 22 November 2019

Taking that sick day yesterday made me lose count of what day it is.  I thought today was Thursday and planned to spend the day sitting at the Visitor Center, using their wifi to post some of these draft posts - and maybe doing a few errands at local stores.

That plan came to a screeching halt when I got a wifi signal and discovered today is Friday instead.  That meant I needed to get down to Memphis before I ran out of time, so I quickly plotted a driving route to some of the places I wanted to visit there and got on the road by 9:00.

today's route

On the road
I saw about a dozen horses in a field near a sign saying stabling was available.  I still can't get over the number of horses I'm seeing in this state - especially compared with what I saw in Kentucky.  I've heard of the Tennessee Walking Horse, which is apparently a very popular breed because of being comfortable to ride for long distances.  Did you know (I didn't) that one of the horses that played the Lone Ranger's Silver was a Tennessee Walker?  Or that the successor to Roy Rogers's Trigger was ditto?  So there.

Memphis has a Cascades Tissue Co. plant.  I never think of Memphis as having manufacturing, which is dumb because they've got to have more of a basis for their economy than tourism.

State Route 51, that I'd taken south from Tiptonville at the northern TN border, has a name in Memphis: Danny Thomas Blvd. and, for me, there's only one Danny Thomas so I assumed he'd lived here.  Then I passed a sign saying St. Jude's Hospital was just down this side street and I suddenly remembered his fundraising for this hospital.  Turns out he did more than that - he founded it.  Now one of the leading children's hospitals in the US, its cancer research has helped improve children's cancer survival rate from 20% in 1962 to 80% now.  The link about how this came about is here.   https://www.stjude.org/danny-thomas

It rained off and on as I drove in, and the clouds were down to the tops of the downtown buildings, so I didn't get much of a look at the skyline.

Clayborn Temple
My first stop was at this church, one of the stops on the National Civil Rights Trail.

about the 1968 Sanitation Workers' Strike

Clayborn Temple

You can see that most of the church's windows have been boarded up.  I don't know why but am wondering if there used to be so much retaliation for the work for civil rights that was centered here that they finally stopped repairing the windows.

Churches were important in civic life as a place to hear news about broader events and as gathering places.

The ties of this church to the civil rights movement reached a peak during the 1968 sanitation workers' strike.  Hundreds of strikers and supporters marched every day from here to city hall in protest of their working conditions.  There's a great deal more information about this strike at the National Civil Rights Museum, and I'll detail that in a separate post.

The stone, above right, sits between the church and the I Am A Man Park.  Many of the strikers carried signs with this slogan on them, repudiating the use of "boy" that characterized their treatment by racists.

Carved on the letters (right) are quotes from some of the strikers.  The names on the black wall at the rear are those of the 1,300 striking sanitation workers.

There are 2 tapering wings, (one shown at left above) that lead to the park's center.

The four quotes on this wall to the left read:

"'I Am A Man' meant freedom.  All we wanted was some decent working conditions and a decent salary.  And to be treated like men, not like boys."  Taylor Rogers: Sanitation Worker

"I've never worked in a group of men that was as eager to get something for themselves as these men were."  T.O. Jones: Sanitation Worker

"We were so proud of the fact that the sanitation folks had stood as men ... and they showed a kind of togetherness that maybe some of us had never seen."  Cornelia Crenshaw: Strike Supporter

"Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness."  MLK: I've Been To The Mountaintop

The four quotes on this wall (right) read:

"Stand up and be a man.  If you can be a man, I can be a woman.  If you can be strong, I can be strong."  Hazel McGhee: Laundry Worker Striker

"Never stop and forget that collectively, that means all of us together, collectively we are richer."  MLK: I've Been To The Mountaintop

"They said to themselves and to their congregations, 'There is no longer 1300 but it's this whole Negro community fighting.  And if we lose, we are all lost."  Jesse Epps: AFSCME

"Whenever men and women straighten their backs, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent."  MLK: I've Been To The Mountaintop

National Civil Rights Museum
Just a few blocks away is the former Lorraine Motel, where MLK was assassinated and where the museum is now located.

I spent 3 hours at this museum, which covers the 410 years since slavery began in America.  Slavery itself lasted nearly 250 years, but apartheid went on for another 120 years.  The effects still continue in many areas, such as education, jobs, housing.

I took almost 200 photos, mostly to use for my memory.  But there's so much information to digest that it'll take me some time to pull it together.  I'll eventually put this into a separate post, but it'll take me a while.

Central BBQ

Central BBQ

I'd intended to go to the original location of this business on (surprise!) Central Avenue.  But then I found this location directly across the street from the museum.  I left the museum after an hour - I'd only gotten up to the Montgomery Bus Boycott so knew there'd be quite a bit left - and came back after lunch.

My lunch was a half-rack of ribs and the dogs were very peeved they didn't get any.

The young man at the counter said Memphis-style barbecue is dry rub, but for first-timers he usually suggested they get the ribs half wet and half dry, to be sure they'd get something they liked.  So I did.

The sauce was more vinegar-y than I'm used to but very good.  My $17 got me these ribs and 5 extra packets of BBQ sauce, which I saved for another time.  The ribs were worth every penny, and I was fortified for another 2 hours in the museum.

Mason Temple Church of God In Christ

The night before MLK was killed, he came here to deliver the "I've Been To The Mountaintop" speech in support of the sanitation workers' continuing strike.  There were thousands here to hear him.

Despite its historical significance, there's no sign at all that indicates this.  No historical marker, no informational sign by the church, nothing.  Except a large colored sign saying this is the Church of God in Christ World Headquarters.  Very odd.

Miscellaneous Memphis
Memphis likes to name its streets after people, like Danny Thomas and BB King and many others I think must have been local folks.

Memphis is a city of churches - they seem to be everywhere.

Northern Flicker

Memphis has an electric trolley that runs along Main St.

Back on the road
Driving into the campground I saw a tan bird with a white rump that flew onto the side of a tree, like a woodpecker.  Which told me what it was: a Flicker - relative of a woodpecker.

I spent so much time in the museum that I missed seeing some other places in the city.  I'll aim to come back tomorrow or Sunday.