Bye Memphis, and Martin Luther King

Dark clouds and rains reigned supreme in the last ten days. The sun relented at last and showed up yesterday. A restless, guilt-ridden Arvind, walked back and forth the living room murmuring: “Too bad. Today is their last day in Memphis, and I have not taken Chittappa and Chitti (Chacha, Chachi) on any pleasure ride except to the Christmas parade. The other few drives have been for the essentials – Pharmacy, Indian Store, or Whole Foods.”

Thus, at the prospect of a shiny day yesterday Arvind jumped up and said: “Chitti, Chittappa, if you both get ready in another fifteen minutes, I can drive you to Dr Martin Luther King’s memorial. And we did.

“That’s Martin Luther King’s memorial,” pointed Arvind from afar. “But, Arvind, the sign-board reads Lorraine Motel,” I said. “Yes, Chittappa, but it was in this motel he stayed last to address the Memphis black sanitary workers’ gathering.

I had just a superficial idea of Martin Luther King’s contribution in the 1960s to the Civil Rights Movement. But my blood began to boil when I read some of the inscriptions or documents on display – copy of a sale deed where an eight-month old baby was being sold to be groomed for slavery; or the grueling voyage of the slaves from Africa across the Atlantic where 20% of them died en route – some refused to eat, others jumped overboard preferring to die rather than face continued horrors.

West Africa was the victim for slavery. By the time of the Civil War, America had nearly four million slaves. When the founding fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, 539,000 people – 20% of the new nation – were held in bondage. The document’s author, Thomas Jefferson, himself owned more than 600 slaves during his lifetime… Attrocities unlimited, in short.

The museum also displayed Mahatma Gandhi’s bust at a vantage point alongside his oft-repeated quotation: “Be the change that you want to see in the world.” Elsewhere his principle of Nonviolence to achieve national goals was highlighted. Yes, Gandhi ji had a lasting influence on Martin Luther King.

The designed route finally took us to the room Martin Luther King had last stayed and the balcony in front. It seems he reached out to the balcony chatting with his friends, when the assassin waiting in the hotel diagonally opposite Lorraine Motel ready with the gun to shoot Martin Luther King, made no mistake.

The killer, James Earl Ray, was a prison-escapee. He had checked into the hotel earlier with an assumed name and selected a room that suited him best for the evil act. After shooting he fled the country but was captured in London, extradited, tried, and sentenced to 99 years imprisonment. He died when he was 70.

There was total silence in the car when we drove back home as though we just attended Martin Luther’s funeral ceremony itself. Yes, there is a reason. Unlike many other museums, this museum was in the very place where he was shot dead. Also, the animation and display transported you to the situation. There was an incident when a black lady deliberately occupied a seat meant for the Whites. When the driver ordered her to vacate, she refused and was arrested. The same bus is on display with a dummy lady and driver. When I boarded the bus and walked past the lady-statue, suddenly I heard the driver roar, ordering to vacate or face arrest. For a moment I thought that on alighting I might be arrested. Yet another bus that was partially set on fire and damaged in an agitation was on display… Precisely why we were still living those moments.

But I broke the ice with the Mahabharata words: “Yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata, abhyutthanam adharmasya, tadatmanam srjamy aham” – whenever evil (adharma) becomes dominant in the society, the God will himself come to this earth to restore dharma.” In this case probably God sent his deputies, Abraham Lincoln, Mahatma Gandhi (his South Africa days), Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, and they eradicated slavery, apartheid, and racial discrimination, to perfection. Moral: Nothing is permanent; only change is.