
First Timer's Guide to Memphis
So, you’re visiting Memphis for the first time? Welcome! With so much to see and do, we put together this handy guide to help ensure that your visit to Memphis will be the first of many trips. (Repeat visitor? You might want to skip over here, our slideshow of what's new to see and do in 2020.)
CIVIL RIGHTS History
Explore civil rights history in Memphis through powerful, interactive sites that will educate and inspire you. Downtown Memphis is home to the The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel. The museum helps us reflect on civil rights struggles from around the world and the continued efforts for equality. Visiting the NCRM is a must do, and depending on your interest, can take anywhere from 1-4 hours, so plan ahead. (They are closed on Tuesdays.)
You’ll find several new memorials not far from the museum: I Am a Man Plaza next to Clayborn Temple (a key rallying point for the historic 1968 Memphis sanitation strike that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to town) and the MLK Reflection Park (on the northwest corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and South Second Street).
Just a few feet away is historic Beale Street and inside Ernest Withers’ last working studio (333 Beale) is the Withers Collection Museum and Gallery. Ernest Withers was a photojournalist who captured over 60 years of Memphis history, from music to sports to civil rights. The musuem is a labor of love, curated from the 1.8 million images Withers took in his lifetime.