Juneteenth is a holiday in the Black community celebrating the emancipation of slaves in Galveston, Texas. Juneteenth has evolved to symbolize the celebration of the emancipation of all enslaved people. Last year, in response to the pandemic and the death of George Floyd, several Black museums came together to organize the Black Freedom Collective which […]
Tag: Memphis
See the museum’s place in the city that shaped it and that it serves. These posts cover Clayborn Temple, the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike, local civic life, and the community the museum calls home. This is a Memphis institution, and the connection runs both ways.
U.N.I.T.Y.: Pride & Identity
“Don’t let anybody tell you what to do, be who you want to be.” – Marsha P. Johnson “We are people, of the mighty Mighty people of the sun.” – Earth Wind & Fire This week’s theme is Pride & Identity. Pride & Identity is more than the celebration of self-acceptance. The songs on […]
Museum Receives Top Honor
The National Civil Rights Museum is among 10 institutions the Institute of Museum and Library Services announced today as recipients of the 2019 National Medal for Museum and Library Services, the nation’s highest honor given to libraries and museums that make significant and exceptional contributions to their communities. Over the past 25 years, the award has […]
Museum Mourns the Passing of Freedom Award Honoree Frank Robinson
We are saddened by the passing of baseball icon Frank Robinson, a Hall of Famer, two-time MVP, and MLB’s first African-American manager. He was honored by the National Civil Rights Museum with the Freedom Award Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. His contributions to civil rights and baseball were many, including the integration of black players […]
America Has a Hate Problem
By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President Our issues of hate are killing our country… still. Last fall, we witnessed NBC Today Show host Megyn Kelly state, “…when I was a kid that [using blackface] was okay if you were dressing up as a character.” Uh…no, Ms. Kelly, it wasn’t okay then, and it isn’t okay […]
Let?s stop tearing down community and build something we can all be proud of
By Terri Lee Freeman In early October the National Civil Rights Museum, along with Bridges and Facing History and Ourselves, launched a campaign to encourage empathy. Our Open Up. Spark a Connection. campaign was created to get people to do just what it says, open up! In the face of our national discourse, or possibly the lack thereof, […]
In Memoriam – Art Shay
By Dr. Noelle N. Trent, Director of Interpretation, Collections & Education Nearly one month after his 96th birthday, April 28, Chicago-based, Bronx-born photographer Art Shay passed away. The name Art Shay may be unfamiliar, but his work is prominently featured in the museum’s newest exhibition MLK50: A Legacy Remembered. I first became acquainted with Shay’s work, when his archivist Erica called […]
Museum Statement on the Removal of Confederate Statues
The National Civil Rights Museum applauds the City of Memphis and the Memphis City Council for identifying a solution and removing the statues of Nathan Bedford Forrest and Jefferson Davis. We also applaud the efforts of concerned citizens who brought attention to the issue and diligently pushed for resolution. For decades, these statues have haunted […]
Love Can Save Us
By Terri Lee Freeman Museum President The Sunday morning news account of the horrific and tragic slaughter that occurred at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida was particularly disturbing to me. For one thing, it brought back memories of two tragic events that I worked through in Washington, DC – September 11th at the […]
The Famous Lorraine Motel
The Lorraine Motel was forever etched in America’s collective memory with the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, but even before that fateful day, the property at 450 Mulberry Street had a fascinating history in its own right. Before it was the Lorraine, it was the Marquette Hotel that catered to black clientele […]
The Freedom Award: An Honor Well Defined & Well Deserved
By Terri Lee Freeman, Museum President In 1991 the National Civil Rights Museum began a tradition of taking the time to honor the ordinary people who did extraordinary things to secure, preserve and protect the rights guaranteed to all citizens of our great nation through the Constitution. These were the foot […]
Who was Elbert Williams?
By Jim Emison Jim Emison is an author and retired courtroom lawyer who has spent three and a half years investigating Elbert Williams’s murder and is writing a book, Elbert Williams: First to Die. To read Emison’s article on Elbert Williams in the Encyclopedia of African American History and a short bio of […]