Doing Public History at the National Civil Rights Museum: A Conversation with Juanita Moore

Abstract

THE TRAGIC ASSASSINATION of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis on April 4, 1968, dashed many people's hopes for peaceful change in the United States. Twenty-five years later, on the April 4, 1993 anniversary of King's death, thousands gathered at Mason Temple, the site of his last speech, singing and preaching about regeneration and hope. Posters announcing three days of commemorative events, which included a two-day symposium evaluating the King legacy, graced the city's buses. Professor Cornell West opened the events with a keynote address linking King to African-American freedom struggles in the past and present. Young people gathered to learn about King but also to discuss their own pressing concerns with older activists from the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Talk shows discussed the significance of King and the movement he led; clergy, union leaders, and everyday people talked about the sanitation strike that brought King to Memphis.