The Geography of American Memory

MEMPHIS, TN - APRIL 4: People gather for the annual memorial of the assignation of Martin Luther King at the National Civil Rights Museum on April 4, 2012 in Memphis Tennessee. On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by white supremacist James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony outside of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. King had come to Memphis to support striking black sanitation workers, who worked under dangerous and degrading conditions for extraordinarily low pay. The segregation- era Lorraine has been preserved, and is now the National Civil Rights Museum. Every year on the anniversary of King"u2019s murder, a memorial ceremony is held at the museum, and every year the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was with King the day he died, attends the event. In this photograph Jackson embraces Elmore Nickleberry, one of the original striking sanitation workers, after attending the brief ceremony in King"u2019s memory. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)