National Civil Rights Museum

Built around the Lorraine Motel where civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, the museum chronicles African-Americans’ struggle for freedom and justice. Photographs, newspaper accounts and three-dimensional scenes illustrate monumental moments in the movement; the 13th Amendment (1865) outlawing slavery; the Brown v. Board of Education decision (1954) ending the “separate, but equal” doctrine; Rosa Parks’ bus boycott (1955) in Montgomery, Ala; forced integration by federal troops of Little Rock (Ark) High School (1957); and demonstrations, sit-ins, peaceful marches and voter-registration campaigns during the 1960s. The nonprofit Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation, which opened the museum in 1991, plans renovations to the Lorraine Motel.