Legend has it that Memphis, TN is the home of the blues. Many a word has been written about it’s soul, what a funky town it is and so on.
So I was a little excited as I drove in from the South.
First impressions were not great, the weather was a bit crappy, but more interestingly was how dead the city seemed. Very little traffic, it felt like Sydney CBD on a cold winter’s morning.
I’d elected not to visit Graceland – I’m not a huge Elvis fan, it was fairly pricey with the min ticket $37.50 up to $80 for the ipad based self guided tour and to be honest, seeing yet another example of America’s excess didn’t really “attract” me.
Instead I headed to the National Civil Rights Museum, which I had been told by all and sundry was a fantastic and detailed record of the civil rights museum.
And it is everything that it has been made out to be.
I was conscious of reading everything on display, rather than just gleaning, and before I knew it 4 hours had passed.
From Rosa Parks to the cafe sit-ins, to the firebombing of buses travelling the South, the museum gives a chilling insight into the racism that existed in America this century.
Seeing some of the footage, listening to the words of people who experienced if first hand – reading the words that were bing written at the time, is all incredibly moving, and saddening.
It is, along with the Holocaust museum in Berlin, one of the two most disturbing exhibitions I have been to.
That is not to say it is something to avoid – instead I think it is something that needs to be experienced by as many people as possible.
I think that whilst I may have intellectually understood the black/white divide in America, and I have seen the discrepancy in opportunity and poverty in many a city, for the first time I really felt what it was like in the past, and why there is still so much pain and hurt being carried by so many to this day.
The only slight quibble I have is the way that the exhibition ends. Being located at the Lorraine Hotel, the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, there is a heavy emphasis on his death.
You can stand in the room from which the fatal shot was supposedly fired, review MLK Jr’s movements on the day, examine the spot where he died, listen to his last “Top of the mountain” speech, and generally fall into that day from almost any perspective.
And that’s where the exhibit slightly falls over for mine. There is so much emphasis on MLK Jr, that he seems unfairly elevated above the others that have come before him. And it does not do enough to highlight the work that has done after him. It’s as if the whole exhibition is designed to gear up to that day back in 1968 and once there forgets to keep going.
I completely understand that MLK Jr was a great great man, and critically important to the entire civil rights movement. The pure number of streets named in his honour across America are silent testament to that by themselves.
Still he was a humble man and one who, as far as I can tell, did not seek to elevate himself above others. I’m not sure how comfortable he would be with the way he is being celebrated here.
But it is a very very minor quibble – and perhaps I am simply nit picking. Still it was probably the only thing that prevents me from giving the museum a perfect 10 from 10.
Having had an emotional few hours, I needed a change, a break.
Everyone told me that the Sun Studios tour was uplifting and fun, so that’s where I headed next. I decided to walk there, the weather having cleared up.
It took a little longer than I thought, but it reinforced the view that Memphis is a city in decline. Empty streets, unkempt historical markers, this is not a vibrant city.
Even the local baseball stadium added to the vacant and somewhat desolate air.
From the outside, Sun Studios does little to dispel that feeling. It’s a much smaller building than I had expected, located on an odd corner and at first glance looks a little run down.
But looks can be deceiving. The inside is chock full of memorabilia, and the guided tour upstairs and then down in the actual studio where many a famous recording took place was a delight. Our guide was informative, knowledgeable and pretty funny it patches – despite doing this regularly every day it doesn’t feel rehearsed or stale.
I’m no music head, but I learned quite a lot during the tour, and as always, looking back on the technology of the time is nothing if not humbling. How they managed to do what they did with the equipment they had is to be applauded.
On the way back to Charlotte I wandered down Beale St – I get that is low season, but there was nary anyone in sight, and the whole place felt a little seedy. I suppose one bar and tourist strip is much the same as the other.
I can only imagine that Memphis is a much more friendly and alive city in the summer, but for what I saw, it’s not been my favourite city in the States.
