My Pilgrimage to the National Civil Rights Museum: The Lorraine Motel – Memphis, Tennessee
A personal narrative about looking into the blind spots. by Don Allen, M. A. Ed./MAT I consider myself somewhat of a league civil rights activist in the early 90’s. I felt that my upcoming visit to the Lorraine Motel, now the National Civil Rights Museum, would be my pilgrimage to what I considered my Mecca.” 1992 had been a good year. I had had stories published in two Minneapolis newspapers as well as other work published in Denver, where I used to live. I was always very critical of the way the mainstream media presented the civil rights struggle and the plight of Black Americans in the United States. At the same time, I was critical of the Black community itself. While it was not a popular view, I believed firmly that a significant number of the problems faced by those in the black community were exacerbated by privileged members of the Black middle class more concerned with personal enrichment than wit...