"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."
Martin Luther King, Jr. sites visited:
The Lorraine Motel where MLK was assassinated is now the National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry Street in Memphis. We visited in 2016. The museum makes you relive the tragedy of 1968 but also honors the brave and courageous, short life that Martin Luther King, Jr., lived.
The boarding house from which James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot was made part of the museum.
For more of his history, this is an excellent book based on Martin's writings.
The sister cities of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph in Michigan each have a sculpture memorial. "A Seat at the Table" is in Dwight P. Michell City Center Park, 127 Pipestone Street in Benton Harbor. Both were erected in 2024 as part of the Unified Civic Monuments Project.
"The Mountaintop" can be found in Margaret B. Upton Arboretum, 601 Water Street, St. Joseph.
We found a tribute to Martin in the Empire State Plaza Concourse on the way to the New York State Capitol building in Albany.
This photo is located in the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York.
The Chicago History Museum in Chicago had this small tribute in 2025.
Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta honors Martin with a painting and a statue.
In 2024, we visited Washington D.C. and walked to the Martin Luther King, Jr, Memorial in West Potomac Park. Completed in 2011, it stands 30 feet tall and is inscribed "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."
Views from across the bay.
In 2026, we visited the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. The Visitor Center was closed for a remodel so we missed a lot.
I got photos of Ghandi through the fence.
A temporary visitor center was set up in the old Fire Station No. 6 and had a few things on display.
Part of the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame was accessible.
MLK's birth home was just down the street from the Fire Station and was closed for restoration.
Freedom Hall had a few small exhibits and a gift shop.
The historic Ebenezer Baptist Church is where MLK Jr. was baptized, co-pastored with his father, and it was the location of his funeral on April 9, 1968.
The cart that carried MLK Jr's coffin is held in the basement of the church.
In 1999, a new church was built across the street and its current pastor is Reverend Raphael Warnock, PhD, who also serves as a U.S. Senator.
This monument by sculptor Patrick Morelli is called "Behold" and was unveiled by Coretta Scott King in 1990.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King rest in a granite sarcophagus surrounded by a beautiful reflecting pool.
A guard told us he has to repeatedly tell people to get out of the pool 😕
It's a lovely setting befitting the stature of these two people.
The eternal flame did not appear to be working.
We were honored to visit and pay our respects to this great man who did so much for civil rights, at the expense of his life.
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
"The end of non-violent action is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community."
RIP Martin 💗
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