Civil Rights Journey

Day 4: Memphis | By Nick and Izzy

After a little bit of a late start, we head off for Memphis Tennessee! We drove down the infamous Beale Street, and visited the famous Peabody Hotel. Why is this hotel so famous? Well, because of the ducks! Such ducks walk down a red carpet to the fountain in the middle. Along with that, there were adorable gift shops selling unique duck-themed items.

After that, we traveled down to the Mississippi river boat tour! It was beautiful. So many sights to see and lots of history to learn about. The wind was blowing, the waves churning, and everything was so peaceful and pretty! We also boated underneath a large bridge! It felt unreal…

After all of that, we headed back to Beale street to do some shopping! We walked around until the end of the day, and then we went to the hotel for a good night’s rest. We had dinner at the Hard Rock café on the corner of Beale Street. It was pretty good!

Day 5: Memphis | By: Izzy

Friday! Today was a bit… turbulent. Quite literally! Our flight back home was cancelled due to a tornado in the area! We got at least five tornado warnings throughout the day, and had to spend most of our time in the lobby of the hotel we were staying in. Though the tornado warnings blared on our TVs, the tornado stayed 20 minutes north of us. We never got touched except for a bit of wind and a little rain. We’re all good!

Earlier in the day, we went to the National Civil Right Museum at the Lorraine Motel and visited the place where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The museum showed us the history of slavery and the lasting consequences of white supremacy, and how the civil rights movement of the 60s changed things for the better. It was very interesting indeed.

After that, we headed over to the Rock and Soul museum. We watched a little introductory film at the beginning and used headphones and music players provided by the museum to learn more about the topics we were reading about! It was a very cool system. Through these devices, we were able to listen in on the past, and hear the beginnings of the rock genre. There was also cool dresses and suits from that era as well. They looked so fun to wear!