it's a lot of thought today on dr.
Martin Luther King jr. Day and what his
efforts meant in the entire world if you
think about it if everybody just took a
few seconds of reflection of what his
message really was we'd all be so much
better off and there's a perfect place
in America to go to do just that
Tina's ratio takes us there Tina al on
this day that we celebrate the life and
contributions of dr. Martin Luther King
jr. MSG is now going to take our viewers
on a tour inside the National Civil
Rights Museum in Memphis Tennessee built
in and around the Lorraine Motel where
dr. King spent his last days and his
life was so tragically taken back in
1968 on November 16th when the Knicks
were playing the Memphis Grizzlies I had
an opportunity to go on a tour at this
museum and I want to tell you that this
exhibit is a true testament to all of
those who fought and died for not just
justice and equality but every
American's civil rights in Memphis
Tennessee on the site of the former
Lorraine Motel stands the National Civil
Rights Museum the museum which opened in
1991 traces the history of the civil
rights movement from the 17th century to
present history is presented and
historic figures are brought back to
life here the story is told of such
prominent abolitionists such as
Frederick Douglass Harriet Tubman Booker
T Washington and w eb Du Bois a
permanent display documents the u.s.
Civil War and Abraham Lincoln's
Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 the
museum also tells of the sad rise of Jim
Crow laws in the south and the Ku Klux
Klan throughout the land into the 20th
century the museum tells of the
Scottsboro 9 in the 30s to the Little
Rock Nine and high school desegregation
in 1957
Ryan Jones a tour guide at the Museum
picks up the story with Rosa Parks a
chapter in the Civil Rights Museum which
also introduced the world to a young
Martin Luther King jr. so on December
the 1st 1955 a woman made an act of
courage her name was Rosa Parks she's a
citizen of Montgomery was a seamstress
and she was involved in the local
n-double-a-cp chapter on that day she
got on a bus just like this one and
decided from refused to give up her seat
on the bus at the time and Alabama and
elsewhere in the south if you were black
and a white person wanted to have your
seat you either had to move to the back
of the bus or completely get off the bus
at that time she was arrested and bailed
out by a man named edy Nixon during this
time women in the civil rights movement
started to speak out the women's
political council was headed by Jo Ann
Gibson said that we were going to have a
one-day bus boycott where all the
african-americans will completely not
ride the bus they would get to work
school whatever it is they needed to do
they would not use bus for a means of
transportation and it was a complete
success the Montgomery bus boycotts
assured in a decade of sit-ins marches
and protests
and although the protests were intended
to be peaceful there was often violence
and bloodshed as was the case in
Birmingham Alabama and Philadelphia
Mississippi the 1960s saw the Selma
March and the Voting Rights Act of 1965
the decade also saw the march on
Washington where Martin Luther King gave
a powerful voice to the civil rights
movement on August 28 1963 all civil
rights organizations called for major
celebration they were going to march on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom because
of the events that took place in
Birmingham Alabama that previous spring
African Americans knew that they were
going to get what they had been wanting
for over a hundred years and that was a
civil rights bill that was going to be
signed by President Kennedy what was the
highlight of this the march on
Washington was Martin Luther King's most
famous streets because I have a dream
speech the story tells of King's final
days as he traveled to Memphis in April
of 1968 to help improve the working
conditions of striking sanitation
workers it was here on the second floor
balcony of the Lorraine hotel where an
assassin's bullet ended the life of the
civil rights leader he was going to have
dinner with Reverend Samuel Billy Kyle's
that night in of Memphis with the rest
of his closest associates he walked out
onto the balcony about 5:45 some of the
people that were there were Reverend
Jesse Jackson Ben branch Merle
McCullough and other people Martin
Luther King walked outside of the
balcony and was asking Ben branch a
Chicago band player to play your
precious Lord take my hand by Mahalia
Jackson at that very moment Reverend
Kyle's walked towards this way and a
shot rang out
Martin Luther King was shot and was
assassinated and it was hitting the
right jaw people rushed to him to figure
out you know if they could save her by
from he was later rushed to st. Joseph's
Hospital and was pronounced dead at 7:05
p.m. Central Standard Time
and although King's life was cut short
that April day his enduring voice will
remain with us forever