May 29, 2021 Day 41: Hot Springs AK -- Yuma, TN

Beale street in Memphis, Tennessee, the home of blues music. The streets were crowded with the black Americans and had a generally street-festival feel. A huge neon sign curved over the entrance. Gift shops and food carts sold music-related things. We stopped to watch a group of line dancers wearing yellow on a stage. One lady with gem-encrusted glasses had a lot of spunk. Each time the song said “stop,” they would shake open hand fans to the general cheer of the audience. There was a sense of rowdy camaraderie I’ve felt before in black churches and gatherings. Street dancers parted the crowd to do a series of backflips, culminating in flipping over several members of the audience crouched down.

Memphis was, of course, also where Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Having deeply studied the Civil Rights Movement, this was what I immediately associated the city with in my head. Another crowd of mostly black people lined up to go into the motel where King was shot, as it had been converted into a civil rights museum. We were too late to get tickets, but we could view the outside. A white wreath hung over the balcony spot King had been speaking to sanitation workers when the bullet fired. Strangely, I thought, there was a tourist atmosphere of cheer around. People stood around taking pictures with plaques and the wreath; a toddler fell out of a wagon and cried in his mother’s arms; groups huddled with their phones out.