Lorraine Motel - Memphis

The Lorraine Motel is located on Mulberry Street in Memphis Tennessee. It was here that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Up until its notorious involvement in Dr. King’s death, the motel enjoyed a long, prosperous life in the black community. The Marquette Hotel dated back to 1925, when it began life as a 16 room hotel which catered to the black population of Memphis. In 1945 the property was bought by Walter Bailey who renamed the hotel in honor of his wife, Loree, and the song “Sweet Lorraine.” He immediately began work on refurbishing the building, adding a second floor, a swimming pool, and drive up parking. The Lorraine was the go to spot for the higher class black clientele during the days of segregation in Memphis. Over the years the guest list read like a who’s who of the black community. Otis Redding, Aretha Franklin, Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Sarah Vaughn, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles were among the entertainers who roomed at the Lorraine. Many musicians working at the nearby Stax Records also spent time at the motel. It is claimed that Wilson Pickett wrote “The Midnight Hour” while staying here. The Lorraine’s most famous guest was Martin Luther King, Jr., who checked in several times over the years. Forever etched in time is King’s visit in 1968, when he was in town to support a sanitation workers strike. On the evening of April 4 he stepped out onto the balcony in front of his room, number 306, and after briefly talking with his entourage on the ground level, was shot in the neck by the assassin James Earl Ray, who was waiting for his opportunity while hiding in the bathroom of a nearby boarding house. The room was never rented out again, and has been preserved exactly as it looked on the night of Dr. King’s Death. Walter Bailey’s wife, Loree, suffered a stroke during the commotion of the evening and died five days later. Bailey spent years trying to have the motel turned into a museum. The Martin Luther King Foundation bought the Lorraine in 1982, just after the motel went into foreclosure. The last tenant was evicted in early 1988, when the Lorraine ceased operations. In July of that year Bailey died. Two years later, in 1991, after an 8 million dollar project to restore the motel and add a museum building to the site, the memorial that Bailey had helped promote finally opened as the National Civil Rights Museum.

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