The National Civil Rights Museum
*The National Civil Rights Museum is celebrated on April 23, 1991. The Institution is a complex of museums and historic buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; its exhibits trace the history of the American abolitionist and American civil rights movement from the 17th century to the present.
The site opened as the 16-room Windsor Hotel in 1924 and was later known as the Marquette Hotel. In 1945, Walter Bailey purchased it and renamed Lorraine for his wife Loree and the song "Sweet Lorraine." During the segregation era, Bailey operated the hotel as an upscale lodging facility that catered to Black clientele. After the Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned segregated businesses, Bailey believed he needed to improve the facility to compete with other no longer whites-only hotels. Bailey expanded the complex significantly later that year, adding a second floor, a swimming pool, and drive-up access for new rooms on the south side of the complex. Accordingly, he changed the name from the Lorraine Hotel to the Lorraine Motel.
Many musicians stayed at the Motel in the 1960s while recording at Memphis' Stax Records. It was the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination in 1968. The museum is built around the Motel, with two other buildings and their adjacent property, also connected with the King assassination, as part of the museum complex. After renovations, the museum reopened in 2014 with increased multimedia and interactive displays and various short films to show tourist attractions.
The Lorraine Civil Rights Museum Foundation, based in Memphis, owns and operates the museum. The Tennessee State Museum owns the Lorraine Motel, which is leased long-term to the Foundation to operate as part of the museum complex. In 2016, the museum was honored by becoming a Smithsonian Affiliate Museum. It also contributes to the South Main Street Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places.
