Spread Peace

Several years ago, I took the following photo during a trip to Memphis. I visited the Lorraine Motel, site of MLK's assassination and home to the National Civil Rights Museum. Although the museum's exhibits guide you through the Civil Rights movement, they essentially push you toward the site of the shooting.

The final exhibit in the museum leads you to King's motel rooms, which have been pretty much preserved as they were at the time, and to the balcony where he was shot down. On the day of my visit, the sky was overcast and generally quiet except for the sounds of the flag whipping in the wind.

Spread peace.

It's hard to put into words how awful it felt to stand there and to put yourself into that scene, to imagine yourself part of a grainy, black and white photograph, pointing at the sound of gunfire as your friend, leader, hope lay dead beside you.

What if...? What if...? What if...?