Remembering History in Memphis On the Eve of Dr. King's Assassination

I was in a campaign meeting on the campus of SUNY Binghamton for Gene McCarthy when another student ran into the room with bloodshot eyes and ragged hair. "Martin Luther King was just shot!" he yelled. It was 1968, before the days of 24/7 news cycles. Someone turned on a radio to hear what was happening. After that, our meeting and in fact our lives, were never the same again.

Fifty years have passed and I've often reflected on how that killing changed America. I'm glad that we had the opportunity to visit the Brooks Museum in Memphis,Tennessee www.brooksmuseum.org. because they have an exhibit which lends pictures to those memories. A temporary exhibit, there until August 19th, highlights photographs of events leading up to that tragic day. 

There are two special temporary exhibitions going on at the Brooks Museum now and in a sense, their themes are related highlighting the need for the movement that Dr. King led. Both exhibits will be there through the middle of August, 2018 so there’s time to plan a trip there. We started by touring the exhibition “Black Resistance: Ernest C. Withers and the Civil Rights Movement” This exhibition is a trove of photographs that memorializes the Civil Rights Movement especially in respect to events that took place in Memphis. These were events that affected the course of history throughout the United States and at the risk of showing my age, I have to say that I remember them too well.

The most iconic of the photographs shows the sanitation workers marching with their famous placards I AM A MAN. Dr. King had just before that talked about the confluence of race and poverty and had begun to address issues of economic justice. It was soon after that march that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot by James Earl Ray and the rest of our history morphed into the present. Other photographs are of other events that took place during the Civil Rights Movement. It was an emotional moment seeing them especially knowing that we have to advocate for all the rights won at that time all over again in light of our current regime in Washington.

I Am A Man taken at the Sanitation Workers' Strike

On the way to the next exhibit, we saw some paintings and prints by Carrol Cloar. The dignity that he is able to portray in his subjects underlines the yearnings seen in the photographs of Ernest C. Withers. My favorite was this one “Wedding Party” that was painted in 1971.

Wedding Party by Carrol Cloar

After this emotional exhibition, it was good to move on to the next one “African-Print Fashion Now! A Story of Taste, Globalization, and Style.” This exhibition shows the development of fashion, fabrics, and patterns in Africa. Although on the surface, the subject seemed more light hearted, it actually depicts an aspect of the history of colonialism in Africa. It shows how the Europeans exploited their knowledge of African preferences to start the fabric and fashion industry from which they profited.

In a sense, it is a forerunner to the exhibition of photographs from the Civil Rights Movement showing once again how the issues of race and economics are connected. As such, you need to see both of these exhibitions. They’ll be there until August 19^th and August 12^th   respectively. 

Besides that the Brooks Museum is well worth seeing. 

The Brooks Museum

It is probably one of the more under-rated museums that we had been to. Located within Overton Park, the building itself is something to see. You won't be sorry that you made the trip.