You Raise Me Up A Hit At Civil Rights Museum

‘You Raise Me Up’, written by Irishman Brendan Graham with Rolf Lovland of Secret Garden, was among the songs featured at the re-opening of the National Civil Rights Museum, in Memphis Tennessee last weekend. The Museum is housed in the converted motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. It was reopened last Saturday after a $27.5 million renovation, offering new interactive exhibits chronicling the development of the civil rights movement. ‘You Raise Me Up’ was sung by Minister Cortney Richardson, during the ceremony.
The museum reopened the day after the 46th anniversary of King's death. The legendary civil rights leader was shot and killed on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in downtown Memphis.
According to reports, about 200,000 people visit the museum each year, including 50,000 to 60,000 school children. The Museum authorities are hoping for a significant upsurge in visitors as a result of the new investment, with 400,000 visitors per annum the goal in the long run.
The exhibit begins with a global representation of the slave trade, with panels tracking the path and the numbers of people that were captured and traded, and the wealth that their labour created.
Visitors are invited to crouch down and fit into the slave ship galley – people were far smaller on average then – or sit in a mock courtroom and listen to the Supreme Court arguments in the historic 1954 Brown v. Board of Education case, which brought an end to segregation in public schools in the United States.
In a fascinating interactive exhibit, The Children's March, visitors walk up to big screens showing video footage of teenage civil rights marchers being attacked by police dogs and fire hoses.
Other exhibits immerse visitors in scenes from the civil rights era, ranging from sitting at a segregated lunch counter to crossing a bridge where state troopers in gas masks wait on the other side with billy clubs. It is an exhibit that will resonate for many people in Northern Ireland, as well as all across the US.
A video of King's final speech, given the night before he was gunned down, is shown on a large screen. Also part of the Museum tour is the hotel room where King stayed before he was killed.