The Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee, is a pilgrimage for whiskey lovers and curious travellers alike, offering an immersive journey through more than 150 years of American distilling heritage, set against the backdrop of the rolling Tennessee hills.
Tennessee: Our visit to Memphis
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis sits on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River in the far south-west corner of Tennessee, close to the borders of both Mississippi and Arkansas. It is the largest city in the state, with a population of around 630,000 people, and it serves as a major centre for logistics, healthcare, and trade. The river has always shaped the city’s character — in the 19th century it was a crucial port for cotton, and that agricultural history left a long and complicated shadow, including the legacy of slavery and a deeply unequal society that the city continues to reckon with today. Memphis is predominantly Black, with African Americans making up roughly two-thirds of the population, and that demographic reality has shaped its culture, its politics, and its struggles in equal measure. Like many older American cities, it has experienced decades of population decline, with wealthier residents moving to surrounding suburbs and leaving behind concentrations of poverty in many of the urban neighbourhoods. Unemployment and violent crime remain persistent problems, though they vary considerably from one part of the city to another.
The city has an extraordinary place in American musical history. Memphis is where blues travelling up from the Mississippi Delta found a home in the clubs and bars of Beale Street, and where that music eventually mixed with gospel and country influences to produce rock and roll. Sun Studio, a small recording facility that still stands near the centre of town, is where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and others made some of their earliest records in the 1950s. Later, Stax Records became one of the defining labels of soul music, releasing records by Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T. & the M.G.’s that influenced popular music around the world. That heritage is not simply a tourist attraction — it reflects a genuine creative tradition rooted in the city’s African American community, born out of both hardship and extraordinary artistic energy. Beale Street today is largely given over to bars and live music venues aimed at visitors, which can feel commercialised, but the musical history it represents is entirely real.
Memphis is also the place where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated in April 1968, at the Lorraine Motel, which now houses the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum is thoughtfully put together and draws a significant number of visitors each year, serving as a reminder that Memphis was not only a site of tragedy but also a city at the centre of the broader struggle for racial equality. The local economy today is anchored by large employers such as FedEx, which was founded there and maintains its global headquarters in the city, along with several major hospital systems. The food scene is well regarded, particularly the barbecue — Memphis-style barbecue, typically slow-smoked pork ribs or pulled pork, has a distinct identity and a devoted following. The city has a genuine, unpolished quality to it that some visitors find refreshing and others find difficult, but it is never less than interesting.
Things to see in Memphis
🎸 Graceland — The King’s Castle (Still Rocking, Even Without the King)
We’d barely set foot in Memphis before it became obvious we couldn’t leave without doing Graceland. It wasn’t really up for debate. When you’re in Memphis, you go to Graceland. It’s a bit like going to Rome and not seeing the Colosseum, except with more sequins.
We made sure we got there early — partly to beat the crowds, and partly because we were visiting out of season, which helped no end. And fair play, it wasn’t too bad at all on the queuing front. A minor miracle for one of the most visited private homes in the United States, attracting well over half a million visitors a year.
Before tackling the mansion itself, we spent a good while in the exhibition space dedicated to Elvis’s stage outfits. Now, I know what you’re thinking — a room full of jumpsuits, how exciting. But honestly, it was genuinely impressive. Throughout the 1970s, Elvis worked with designer Bill Belew to produce dozens of these extraordinary one-piece stage costumes, many of them studded with rhinestones, embroidered with elaborate patterns, and weighing a frankly alarming amount. The man must have had the constitution of an ox just to perform in them under stage lighting.
Also on display was Elvis’s personal aircraft, a Convair 880 jet that he bought in 1975 and named the Lisa Marie after his daughter. Around a million dollars was spent kitting out the interior — gold plating on the seat belt buckles, gold-plated bathroom fittings, the lot. Boys with toys, as I may have mentioned once or twice on this trip.
Elvis himself bought Graceland in 1957 at the age of 22, paying $100,000 for the property — which was quite a sum in those days, though frankly a bargain given what it subsequently became worth. He lived there until his death on 16th August 1977, aged just 42. The self-guided tour of the mansion comes with a headset, which is actually a very good idea given the number of visitors, and takes you through the ground floor rooms — the living room, the dining room, the kitchen, and down into the basement with its famous Jungle Room, a gloriously bonkers den with waterfall, green shag-carpet ceiling, and fur-covered furniture throughout. It is, without question, the most magnificently terrible interior design you will ever see in your life. Somebody in the 1970s thought this was the height of sophistication. Bless them.
The mansion itself is, surprisingly, not that enormous. Given Elvis’s considerable wealth by the time of his death, Graceland is a relatively modest home by the standards of modern celebrity excess. What it lacks in scale, though, it makes up for in atmosphere — because the whole place has been frozen in time since 1977, and walking through it feels genuinely rather odd and moving all at once.
Additional rooms and outbuildings on the estate now house a remarkable collection of memorabilia — gold, silver and platinum discs by the hundred, military uniforms from his US Army service in West Germany between 1958 and 1960, and personal items belonging to Elvis, Priscilla, and Lisa Marie. Jack and Emily, who never really grew up with Elvis as we did, surprised us both by thoroughly enjoying the whole thing. Good for them.
The final stop on the tour of the grounds is the Meditation Garden, where Elvis is buried alongside his mother Gladys, who died in 1958, his father Vernon, who outlived his son by two years, and his paternal grandmother Minnie Mae, who was 90 when she passed and had the particular sadness of outliving both her son and her famous grandson. That, I think, is one of those facts that just sits heavily with you. Karen and I — having grown up entirely with the mythology of Elvis — found the whole thing rather affecting. As for Karen, she was additionally and specifically horrified to discover that the floral tributes on his grave were plastic. Karen takes these things seriously.
We rounded off the day with a wander around the car and motorbike collection, which includes the famous pink Cadillac Fleetwood. All told, it took us a comfortable half a day to get round everything, and arriving first thing made all the difference.
Visitor Information
- Location: 3764 Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee 38116, USA
- Website: www.graceland.com
- Telephone: +1 (901) 332-3322
- Opening Hours: Open daily; hours vary by season. Typically 9:00 am – 5:00 pm (summer hours extended). Check the website for current seasonal times.
- Entry Fees: Ticket options vary depending on the package selected. The basic “Elvis Experience Tour” (mansion only) starts at approximately $45 per adult (prices subject to change). Premium packages including aircraft, car museum, and additional exhibits are available at higher prices. Children under 5 free; reduced rates for children aged 5–12. Advance online booking recommended in peak season.
🎸 Beale Street & Rock ‘n’ Roll Soul Museum
We’d heard about Beale Street long before we got there, and honestly, it didn’t disappoint — which, for a place that’s been hyped to within an inch of its life, is saying something.
Beale Street sits in the heart of downtown Memphis, Tennessee, and it’s essentially three blocks of nightclubs, restaurants and shops that somehow manage to contain the entire soul of American popular music within them. Delta blues, jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, gospel — it’s all crammed in there, jostling for space like passengers on the London Tube at rush hour.
The street has been a National Historic Landmark district since 1966, and rightly so. This was the stomping ground of genuine legends. Memphis Minnie — born Lizzie Douglas in 1897 — was recording blues here back in the 1920s and 1930s, and largely didn’t get the credit she deserved until decades later. B.B. King arrived on Beale Street as a young man from Mississippi in the late 1940s and played himself into history. Rufus Thomas — DJ, performer and all-round showman — was a fixture here from the 1950s onwards and remained gloriously active well into his seventies.
What’s rather good about Beale Street is that it doesn’t just trade on nostalgia. Yes, there are museums and photo opportunities and the usual heritage-trail paraphernalia, but the clubs are still going strong, and you can walk in on a Tuesday night and hear someone absolutely crackling with talent doing something new with those same old chords.
We had cold beer. There was very loud, very good music. We stayed longer than we planned. Beale Street has that effect on people.
🎵 Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum
We’ll be honest — we went in expecting the usual sort of museum experience. You know the kind: glass cases full of dusty artefacts, laminated information boards written by someone who clearly finds the subject considerably less interesting than you do, and a gift shop at the end selling tea towels. We were wrong. Pleasingly, comprehensively wrong.
The Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum tells a story that goes considerably deeper than guitars and drumsticks, and it does so rather well. This is the complete Memphis music story — not just the greatest hits version — and at its heart is something genuinely moving: the tale of musical pioneers who, against considerable odds, overcame racial and socio-economic barriers to create music that quite literally shook and shaped the world. That’s not marketing copy, that’s what actually happened.
The exhibition itself was researched and developed by the Smithsonian Institution — the Washington DC organisation that runs 19 museums and is not, by any stretch, in the habit of doing things shoddily. They spent years piecing this together, and it shows. Performing Songwriter Magazine declared it may be the single best exhibition of American musical history in the country. High praise, and frankly, having walked around it, we weren’t inclined to argue. The museum has also been recognised as one of Globus’ “American Icons,” which puts it alongside the likes of George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Alaska’s Denali National Park. Not bad for a building on Beale Street.
What the exhibition does particularly cleverly is start at the very beginning — not with Elvis, tempting as that must have been — but with the rural field hollers and sharecroppers of the 1930s. These were the men and women working the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, singing to get through the day, and in doing so, accidentally inventing the musical DNA of the modern world. From there, the story moves through the explosion of Sun Records in the early 1950s, Stax Records from 1957, and Hi Records from 1957, through Memphis’ extraordinary musical heyday in the 1960s and 70s, and out to its enduring global influence.
Sun Records alone could fill a museum. Founded by Sam Phillips in 1952 at 706 Union Avenue, it was the label that recorded Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins — all within a few years of each other. If that had been Sun’s only contribution to human culture, it would still be remarkable. Stax, meanwhile, gave the world Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Sam & Dave and Booker T. and the MGs. These weren’t just popular musicians. They were architects.
The museum also administers the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, which pays proper tribute to many of the greatest musicians who ever drew breath — all of them instrumental, in one way or another, in putting Memphis, Tennessee firmly on the world map. The roll call is staggering: Elvis Presley, B.B. King, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Howlin’ Wolf, Johnny Cash, Sam & Dave, Al Green, The BarKays, Booker T. and the MGs. The sort of list that makes you feel slightly inadequate about your own achievements, frankly.
The self-guided digital audio tour runs to over 300 minutes of Smithsonian-researched content, includes more than 100 songs, and takes you through seven galleries at your own pace — which suits us perfectly, because we are the sort of people who read every single information panel and then wonder why we’ve been in the building for four hours. There are three audiovisual programmes, more than 30 instruments, 40 costumes, and various other musical treasures on display, including original sound consoles from the legendary Sun Records and Ardent Studios — the latter being the studio founded in 1959 that went on to record Big Star, Led Zeppelin and R.E.M., among others. Not too shabby.
We emerged blinking into the Memphis sunshine considerably better informed, and with a renewed appreciation for the sheer, improbable brilliance of what happened in this city. Highly recommended. Even for people who think they don’t like museums.
Visitor Information
- Location: Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, 191 Beale Street, Memphis, Tennessee 38103, USA (located at the FedExForum plaza, corner of Beale Street and 3rd Street)
- Website: www.memphisrocknsoul.org
- Telephone: +1 (901) 205-2533
- Opening Hours: Open daily 10:00am – 5:00pm (last admission 4:00pm); closed Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day
- Entry Fees: Adults approximately $13; children (5–17) approximately $10; children under 5 free. Combo tickets available with other Memphis attractions. Prices subject to change — check the website before visiting
🎵 Sun Studio – The Holy Shrine of Rock ‘n’ Roll
If music were a religion, then Memphis would be Jerusalem and Sun Studio its most holy shrine. That’s not us being dramatic — that’s just how it is. And frankly, after standing in the place where it all happened, we’re inclined to agree with whoever said it first.
We’d done our homework before visiting, as one does when one is of a certain age and slightly obsessive about not wasting a trip. Sun Studio sits at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis, Tennessee, and it was here, in January 1950, that a quietly determined man from Florence, Alabama named Sam Phillips opened what would become the most consequential little recording studio in the history of popular music. Phillips wasn’t a glamorous type. He was an engineer with good ears and a stubborn belief that the music coming out of the Black neighbourhoods of Memphis — particularly from Beale Street, that legendary strip of juke joints and blues clubs that had been humming since the 1900s — was something the world needed to hear properly recorded. He wasn’t wrong.
Phillips initially ran the studio as the Memphis Recording Service, offering the then-remarkable service of recording anyone for a modest fee. Local musicians, church choirs, weddings — he’d capture it all. But what he was really after was the raw, unpolished energy of the blues. In 1951, just a year after opening, he got his first taste of history when Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats came in and recorded “Rocket 88” — a stomping, raucous number built around a malfunctioning guitar amplifier that Ike Turner (yes, that Ike Turner, who led the band) had apparently dropped on the way to the session. Rather than treating the buzzing, distorted sound as a problem, Phillips thought it sounded rather good. The record is now widely considered the first rock ‘n’ roll single ever made. So, rock ‘n’ roll was essentially born out of a broken amp and someone too tight to hire a proper removal man. Seems about right.
Then came 1954, and everything changed. A nervous, rather pretty young truck driver from Tupelo, Mississippi walked in to record a song for his mother’s birthday — or so the story goes. His name was Elvis Aaron Presley, and on the 5th of July 1954, he and Phillips, along with guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, stumbled upon something extraordinary during a late-night session. Elvis started messing about with Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right,” playing it loose and fast, almost as a joke. Phillips heard it from the control room, stopped the tape, and said something to the effect of “what on earth was that — do that again.” That moment, preserved in the room we were now standing in, launched the career that would define popular music for the next seven decades and counting.
The guided tour through Sun Studio was, we have to say, rather brilliant — and we don’t throw that word around lightly. We’re English. We find most things mildly disappointing. But this was genuinely moving. You get to stand on the very spot where Elvis stood, touch the actual microphone he used for those early sessions (still there, still mounted, slightly surreal), and listen to genuine outtakes from recording sessions — the false starts, the laughter, the moments where history was being made by people who had absolutely no idea they were making history. That’s the bit that gets you.
And it wasn’t just Elvis, of course. Phillips had an extraordinary ear for talent. Johnny Cash recorded here — the original “I Walk the Line” and “Folsom Prison Blues” came out of this studio in the mid-1950s. Jerry Lee Lewis, the human fireball from Louisiana, hammered his first proper recordings out on the studio piano here in 1956 and 1957. Carl Perkins wrote and recorded “Blue Suede Shoes” here in late 1955. Roy Orbison, with that astonishing voice, came through in 1956. B.B. King recorded some of his earliest work in the building. Charlie Rich. And many more. For a brief, extraordinary period in the 1950s, this modest little room on Union Avenue was the centre of the musical universe.
Phillips formally launched Sun Records as a label in 1952, and the catalogue it built in that first decade remains staggering. The studio closed for a spell after Phillips sold Elvis’s contract to RCA in 1955 for the then-extraordinary sum of $35,000 — a decision that remains one of the most discussed transactions in music business history, though Phillips always maintained he needed the money to keep the label going and didn’t regret it — before eventually being recognised for what it was: a national treasure. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, which is America’s way of saying “yes, this is rather important, do try not to knock it down.”
What makes Sun Studio genuinely special — beyond the history, beyond the memorabilia, beyond the fact that the room itself is essentially unchanged — is that it’s still a working studio. Artists still record here. U2 came in and recorded, because of course they did. Def Leppard, Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Paul Simon, Margo Price — the list of modern artists who’ve made the pilgrimage to lay something down in this room is long and rather distinguished. There’s something about the place that apparently still works. Perhaps it’s the acoustics. Perhaps it’s the mojo. Perhaps musicians just fancy the story of saying they recorded at Sun Studio. We suspect it’s a bit of all three.
Tours run at the bottom half of every hour, which is a sensible arrangement that gives you time to wander the small but well-curated museum section first. Don’t be late. They won’t wait.
Visitor Information
- Location: Sun Studio, 706 Union Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38103, USA
- Website: www.sunstudio.com
- Telephone: +1 (901) 521-0664
- Opening Hours: Open daily, 10:00am – 6:00pm (tours run at the bottom half of every hour; last tour at 5:30pm)
- Entry Fees: Adults approximately $18 USD; children under 5 free. Prices subject to change — check the website for current pricing before visiting.
🎵 Stax Museum of American Soul Music
We’d been working our way through Memphis for a couple of days by this point, and frankly my feet were beginning to lodge a formal complaint. Still, there was one more stop we absolutely had to make — the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, which sits south of downtown Memphis on McLemore Avenue, right on the spot where the original Stax recording studio once stood.
Now, the original Stax Records building — a converted cinema called the Capitol Theatre — was demolished in 1989, which is one of those acts of cultural vandalism that makes you want to sit down and have a quiet weep. Fortunately, someone with more sense than the demolition crew eventually prevailed, and the museum was rebuilt on the exact same footprint, opening its doors in May 2003. They even reconstructed the original recording studio inside, which is a rather nice touch.
The museum does a thorough job of covering the broader sweep of soul music history, but — as you’d expect given the postcode — it rather inevitably focuses on the Stax record label itself. And what a label it was. From its founding in 1957 by siblings Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton (the name “Stax” being a combination of their surnames, since you asked), through its golden years in the 1960s and into the early 1970s, Stax was one of the most important record labels in American music. Full stop.
The artists who recorded there read like a who’s who of soul greatness. Otis Redding — the man responsible for “Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay” and about fifty other songs you know without realising you know them — recorded much of his output at Stax before his tragically early death in a plane crash in December 1967 at the age of just twenty-six. Booker T. and the MGs were the house band, and their 1962 instrumental “Green Onions” remains one of the most perfectly constructed pieces of music ever committed to tape. Isaac Hayes, who’d go on to win an Academy Award in 1972 for the theme from Shaft, made his name here too. The list goes on: Sam & Dave, Wilson Pickett, Albert King, Rufus Thomas.
For the parents amongst us, this was wonderful stuff. Pure nostalgia. We stood there nodding sagely at exhibits and saying things like “Oh yes, I remember this one” to nobody in particular, feeling very culturally informed and significantly older than we’d felt that morning.
Jack and Emily, however, were having none of it. To be fair to them, they are of an age where anything recorded before roughly 2019 might as well be ancient history, and they had absolutely no idea who any of these people were. They endured it with the patient tolerance of children who know that tolerating this sort of thing is the price they pay for the hotel swimming pool later. They were a little bored, bless them, and made no particular effort to hide it. We pressed on regardless.
After leaving the museum, we took a wander through the surrounding streets, trying to track down the birth home of Aretha Franklin, who was born in Memphis in 1942 before her family moved to Detroit when she was still a young child. We didn’t find it — it’s not exactly signposted — but the search gave us a proper look at the neighbourhood, which today remains very poor and noticeably depressed. The streets are quiet in the wrong sort of way. Houses sit tired and neglected. It’s the kind of area that makes you feel vaguely guilty for being a tourist with a camera.
There’s a certain grim irony in the fact that so much extraordinary music — music that lifted spirits and changed lives across the world — came out of poverty and hardship like this. You think about what these artists were working against, and the achievement feels even more remarkable. It’s still sad to see the conditions that remain, though. Great art shouldn’t require this much suffering to produce it — even if, historically speaking, it rather often does.
Visitor Information
- Location: 926 E McLemore Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38106, USA
- Website: www.staxmuseum.com
- Telephone: +1 (901) 942-7685
- Opening Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10:00am–5:00pm; Sunday 1:00pm–5:00pm; Closed Mondays
- Entry Fees: Adults $13; Seniors (62+) $12; Children (9–12) $10; Children 8 and under Free; Family rate available
🏛️ National Museum of Civil Rights, Memphis
Our plan for the day was to visit the National Civil Rights Museum in downtown Memphis, and frankly, it turned out to be one of those experiences that stays with you long after you’ve gone home and complained about the flight.
The museum is built around the old Lorraine Motel — and yes, it really is that Lorraine Motel. The one where, on the evening of 4th April 1968, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out onto the second-floor balcony of room 306 and was shot dead by a single rifle bullet. As we rounded the corner and the frontage came into view, there was that strange, slightly eerie sensation of instant recognition. We’d all seen it a hundred times in photographs and news footage, and yet here it was in three dimensions, sitting quietly in the Memphis sunshine as if it hadn’t been the site of one of the most consequential murders in American history. A wreath hangs on the balcony railing, and it’s been there since the day King died — a permanent, sombre reminder that this isn’t just a museum, it’s a crime scene.
The museum itself opened in 1991 on the site of the old motel, which had originally been built in the 1920s as the Windsor Hotel. It was renamed the Lorraine in 1942 — possibly after the Nat King Cole song Sweet Lorraine — and became one of the few quality establishments in Memphis that would accept Black guests during the segregation era. King stayed there regularly. It was his preferred base in the city.
Inside, the museum does something quite clever. Rather than starting in 1968 and working backwards, it takes you on the full, grim, extraordinary journey of African American history, beginning with the transatlantic slave trade — which transported around 12.5 million Africans to the Americas between the 16th and 19th centuries — and working forwards. Along the way, we were introduced to some of the key figures in the long struggle for freedom and equality. John Brown, the radical abolitionist who believed armed insurrection was the only answer and who led the failed raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859. Harriet Tubman, who escaped slavery in 1849 and then, at considerable personal risk, made approximately 13 missions back into the South to guide around 70 other enslaved people to freedom via the Underground Railroad. Abraham Lincoln, who signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, and Booker T. Washington, the educator and author born into slavery in 1856 who became one of the most influential Black leaders of his generation.
Of course, as the museum makes painfully clear, the abolition of slavery didn’t exactly usher in a golden age of equality. The 13th Amendment of 1865 abolished slavery. The 14th Amendment of 1868 granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalised in the United States. The 15th Amendment of 1870 gave Black men the right to vote. On paper, this all sounded rather promising. In practice, particularly in the Southern States, it was treated with roughly the same enthusiasm as a parking ticket. Segregation — the legal separation of Black and white Americans in virtually every area of public life — became embedded in the fabric of daily existence across the South under the so-called Jim Crow laws, which remained in force well into the 20th century. Schools, restaurants, hotels, parks, swimming pools, theatres and, yes, even drinking fountains were all divided by race. It was systematic, institutional and thoroughly nasty.
The exhibits covering the pivotal moments of the 20th-century civil rights movement are where the museum really comes into its own. Brown v. Board of Education — the landmark 1954 Supreme Court ruling that declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional — gets proper coverage, as does the extraordinary courage of the Little Rock Nine, the nine Black students who, in September 1957, attempted to enrol at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas and were met by a baying mob and the Arkansas National Guard, deployed by the state’s governor to block them. President Eisenhower eventually had to send in the 101st Airborne Division to escort the children to class. One imagines the school’s welcome committee was not particularly warm.
The sit-in movement is well represented too. From 1960 onwards, groups of Black students — and some white supporters — began staging peaceful sit-ins at segregated lunch counters across the South, refusing to move until served or arrested. The Greensboro sit-ins of February 1960, where four students from North Carolina A&T quietly sat down at a Woolworth’s lunch counter and asked to be served, triggered a wave of similar protests across the region.
Then there’s the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which has its own full-scale exhibit — including an actual Montgomery city bus of the period, which is a genuinely powerful thing to stand next to. In December 1955, Rosa Parks, a 42-year-old seamstress and NAACP secretary, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery city bus and was arrested. The Black community of Montgomery responded by boycotting the bus system for 381 days — more than a year — until the Supreme Court ruled bus segregation unconstitutional in November 1956. The museum tells this story with clarity and without sentiment, which is exactly right. It doesn’t need dressing up. The injustice is self-evident.
By the late 1950s and 1960s, figures like Martin Luther King Jr. — a Baptist minister from Atlanta who became the most recognised voice of the movement — and Malcolm X, whose approach was rather more confrontational (to put it mildly), were mobilising hundreds of thousands of people. King’s I Have a Dream speech at the March on Washington in August 1963 drew around 250,000 people. The Civil Rights Act followed in 1964, and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Progress, at last, though none of it came cheaply.
The final exhibit on the main site is, inevitably, the one that stops you in your tracks. We were taken into reconstructed versions of rooms 306 and 307 of the Lorraine Motel, painstakingly restored to appear exactly as they were on the evening of 4th April 1968. From behind a glass screen, we could look out at the very balcony where King fell. The bloodstained section of concrete has been removed, but you can see clearly where it was. It was a profoundly moving moment for all of us Hoblets. Not mawkish, not overdone — just quietly devastating in the way that only the truth, properly presented, can be.
After that, we crossed the road to a second building on the opposite side of South Main Street — the former South Main Street rooming house, now known as the Legacy Building. This is where James Earl Ray rented a room on the day of the assassination. The museum has recreated the squalid communal bathroom from which Ray allegedly fired the fatal shot, working from forensic photographs taken in the immediate aftermath. Standing there, you can see precisely the line of sight across to the Lorraine’s balcony. It’s uncomfortably clear. The exhibits in this section cover the full story of the assassination: detailed profiles of James Earl Ray, who was convicted of the murder in 1969 and died in prison in 1998; the physical evidence; and the various conspiracy theories that have never quite gone away — including claims that Ray was a patsy and that the killing was orchestrated by the FBI, the CIA, the Mafia, or some combination thereof. The King family themselves pursued a civil case in 1999 that found a Memphis businessman named Loyd Jowers had conspired with government agencies to kill King. Make of that what you will. The museum presents it all and, sensibly, lets you draw your own conclusions.
All very interesting indeed — and, it has to be said, rather more affecting than your average afternoon out.
📍 Visitor Information
- Location: National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry Street, Memphis, Tennessee, TN 38103, USA
- Website: www.civilrightsmuseum.org
- Telephone: +1 (901) 521-9699
- Opening Hours: Monday & Wednesday–Saturday: 9am–5pm; Sunday: 1pm–5pm; Closed Tuesday
- Entry Fees: Adults $20; Seniors (60+) $15; Students (with ID) $15; Children (5–17) $14; Under 5s: Free. Memphis residents receive free admission on Mondays.
Best time to visit Tennessee
🌸 Spring (March to May)
Spring is one of the most rewarding times to visit Tennessee. Temperatures climb gradually from cool March mornings into warm May afternoons, typically ranging from 10°C to 24°C. The Great Smoky Mountains burst into colour with wildflowers, and the scenery across the state is lush and inviting. Rainfall is fairly common, particularly in April, but showers tend to be brief. The crowds are manageable outside of school holiday weekends, and accommodation prices are reasonable before the summer surge. Nashville and Memphis both host excellent festivals during this period, including Nashville’s celebrated music events. The Smoky Mountains’ famous wildflower season peaks in April and May, drawing walkers and nature enthusiasts from across the country.
What to pack: Light layers including a waterproof jacket, comfortable walking shoes, a light jumper for cooler evenings, sun cream, sunglasses, and an umbrella or compact rain mac.
☀️ Summer (June to August)
Summer is Tennessee’s busiest and hottest season. Temperatures regularly exceed 32°C with high humidity, particularly in Memphis and Nashville, making it feel considerably warmer. The Great Smoky Mountains offer some relief at higher elevations, and this is peak season for outdoor activities, theme parks, and river tubing. Expect large crowds at popular attractions, higher prices, and the need to book accommodation well in advance. Dolly Parton’s Dollywood in Pigeon Forge is especially popular with families during this period. Despite the heat, summer evenings in Tennessee have a charm of their own — outdoor concerts, barbecues, and rooftop dining are all very much part of the culture.
What to pack: Lightweight, breathable clothing, shorts, T-shirts, a hat, strong sun cream (SPF 50+), insect repellent, sunglasses, a reusable water bottle, and a light cardigan for air-conditioned venues.
🍂 Autumn (September to November)
Autumn is widely regarded as the finest season in Tennessee, particularly for those visiting the eastern mountains. September remains warm and sunny, whilst October brings spectacular fall foliage across the Smoky Mountains, the Cumberland Plateau, and the rural countryside. Temperatures are pleasantly mild — between 10°C and 22°C — and the humidity drops considerably compared to summer. Crowds thin out after the school holidays end, though leaf-peeping season in mid to late October does draw visitors to the mountain areas. Festivals celebrating harvest, music, and Americana are plentiful throughout the state. November turns noticeably cooler and is a quieter, more affordable time to visit.
What to pack: Layers are essential — T-shirts, light jumpers, a warm fleece or jacket, comfortable walking boots, a scarf for November, and a compact waterproof for unpredictable showers.
❄️ Winter (December to February)
Winter is Tennessee’s quietest and most affordable season. Snow is possible, particularly in the Smoky Mountains and eastern Tennessee, though it tends to be light and infrequent in Nashville and Memphis. Temperatures range from around -2°C to 10°C, with occasional cold snaps. The Smoky Mountains take on a beautiful, peaceful quality in winter, and the lack of crowds means you can explore more freely. Nashville’s honky-tonks and music venues buzz year-round regardless of season, and Memphis’ indoor attractions — including the National Civil Rights Museum and Sun Studio — are as compelling as ever. Christmas markets and festive events add seasonal charm during December.
What to pack: A warm winter coat, thermal underlayers, jumpers, waterproof boots, gloves, a hat, and a scarf. Pack layers rather than one very heavy item to allow flexibility as indoor heating can be very warm.
🏆 Overall Best Time to Visit
If you can only visit Tennessee once, aim for October. The combination of spectacular autumn foliage in the Great Smoky Mountains, comfortable temperatures, lower humidity, and a quieter atmosphere compared to the summer peak makes it quite simply the finest month the state has to offer. That said, late April and early May run it very close — the wildflower displays in the Smokies are extraordinary, the weather is pleasant, and the energy across Nashville and Memphis is at its most vibrant. Travellers on a tighter budget who prefer solitude will find winter, particularly January and February, to be surprisingly rewarding, especially in the mountains. In short, Tennessee is a year-round destination — but autumn, with its golden ridgelines and cooler air, is its finest hour.
Where to stay in Memphis
1. Big Cyprus Lodge
Located within the iconic Memphis Pyramid, Big Cypress Lodge features accommodations with a 24-hour fitness centre, private parking and a terrace. Located around 1.6 mi from Orpheum Theater, the resort with free WiFi is also 1.6 mi away from AutoZone Park. Guests can grab a bite to eat in either of the 2 on-site restaurant or relax in the bar.
All guest rooms at the resort are equipped with a seating area and a flat-screen TV. The rooms include a private bathroom with a bath. The rooms at Big Cypress Lodge include air conditioning and a desk.
With views overlooking downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River, the property offers a 13 lane bowling alley. A business centre and vending machines with drinks are available on-site at the accommodations. The reception can provide advice on the area in order to help guests plan their day.
2. Moxy Memphis Downtown
3. The James Leign House
The James Lee House is an internationally acclaimed Boutique Bed and Breakfast located in the heart of Memphis, Tennessee. Gorgeous architectural features, treasured antiques, a rich heritage of art, music, and literature await you. Spend your nights in the elegance of refined Victorian splendour, resting in the harmonious balance of authenticity and contemporary comfort.
The five meticulously appointed suites are thoughtfully and handsomely decorated to make your stay truly unforgettable.
More to Explore
