Memphis: BBQ & the Blues

Our first stop in Memphis was the Lorraine Hotel and National Civil Rights Museum (http://www.civilrightsmuseum.org/home.htm), where we saw the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King was assasinated, and stood in the room where he stayed. We toured the museum and learned about blacks in Vietnam, the Black Panthers, and more on the Civil Rights Movement. We also toured the building and apartment where the sniper's bullet came from that struck and killed Dr. King. The hotel has been restored extremely well, and the museum is exceptional. You will learn a lot and obtain a greater, more detailed understanding of the movement, its participants and what lead up to Dr. King's death, by eye witness and friend Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles.

In Memphis we also walked around Beale Street, often called "little Bourbon street," where many of the blues clubs are. Music lives and breathes here and the whole street is lit up in neoon lights. Our next stop was Jim Neely's Interstate BBQ (http://www.interstatebarbecue.com/), where the sandwiches are BIG and the sauce is even better. The best BBQ in Memphis. Interstate BBQ also has unconventional menu choices such as BBQ Spaghetti, BBQ nachos, and BBQ salad. If you're lucky, you might catch a glimpse of Mr. Neely. We did. Lastly, we took a quick look at Elvis' home, Graceland. Beautiful home, but not in the best part of town. Next stop Little Rock, AR.


Kim in front of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. King was assasinated.


Room 306 where Dr. King stayed, and the balcony where he was killed.


Beale Street (aka: Little Bourbon St.)


BB King's Blues Club


A monster BBQ sandwich


Lorenzo at Jim Neely's

Retracing The Steps Towards Civil Rights - Tuskegee, Montgomery, and Birmingham

"[W]hen you take a cross county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you . . . then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait." - "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

On this portion of our trip we retraced the steps of black history and the civil rights movement. It is only because of the civil rights movement that we are able to take our current cross country adventure. We began this portion of our trip in Tuskegee, Alabama. We toured the Tuskegee University, the Booker T. Washington & George Washington Carver Museum, and the Tuskegee Airmen Airfield. From Tuskegee we traveled to Montgomery, Alabama where we toured, sat inside, and met the current pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church - the very church where Dr. King was a paster for four years and where the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Alabama Chapter of the NAACP were organized. It is on the end of the same street on which Dexter Avenue Church sits that the march from Selma to Mongomery was culminated, on the steps of the old capital of the confederatcy of Alabama. Our next stop was Birmingham, Alabama and on to the Civil Rights Institute and 16th Sreet Baptist Church. In our opinion, the Civil Rights Institute is one of the best civil rights museums in the country, followed by Memphis' museum and Lorriane Motel, which we will visit in our next post. This is a "must do" in Birmingham. Next stop, Memphis, Tennessee.


Kim in front of the Tuskegee Institute


Us with the Tuskegee Airmen Airfield in back


Inside Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church


Dr. King's home while pastoring Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
This home was once bombed during the movement, but no one was hurt.


Birmingham Civil Rights Institute


16th Street Baptist Church
In 1963, this church was bombed by members of the KKK, and four young girls were killed.