Our tour bus parked on a side street. We got off the bus and headed up the hill, The Lorraine Motel sign as our beacon.
Side of Lorraine MotelMotel Sign With Words “I Have A Dream”
I got to the top of the slope and looked to my right. The sudden view of the hotel balcony was like a gentle gut punch. In my mind’s eye I could see the iconic image of Reverend Martin Luther King lying dead on the balcony, one man kneeling at his side and others pointing across the street.
Balcony of the Lorraine Motel-White Wreath in Front of Area MLK Was Murdered
I began to sob. I don’t like people seeing me cry and moved away a bit from our group and guide, my husband comforting me. I put my camera between me and the scene before me. I recorded the building and the bricks below my feet.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered April 4th, 1968.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. was murdered two months later on June 6th, 1968.
Elvis Presley was preparing to film his Comeback Special for NBC in June of 1968. Since it would air in December of that year there was some suggestion of the special being a Christmas special and that the final song would be a Christmas song. Elvis was upset enough about the murders of MLK and RFK that he asked one of his writers, Walter Earl Brown to write a song. He patterned it on MLK’s I Have A Dream speech and it was titled If I Can Dream. It was the last song in the Comeback Special. Over 40 million people watched the special.
Background for Comeback Special (aired December 1968)
Link to You Tube video of Elvis singing “If I Can Dream”:
“There’s some part of me wants to see Graceland”-line from Paul Simon’s Graceland.
Graceland has not been on my bucket list, nor has Memphis, Tennessee. Not that I had anything against the city or the home. I always enjoyed Elvis as a singer and entertainer, but did not really appreciate him until I was an adult. I remember as a kid looking for something to watch on t.v. and when one of the few channels we got was showing an Elvis movie, we were not too happy. We did watch them, but I remember most of them being not very good, if mildly entertaining.
But, when my husband and I found ourselves in Memphis for a few days in early March, we saw the sights. And there must have been a little part of me that had always wanted to go to Graceland, because I enjoyed the whole Elvis experience.
First we toured the large museum devoted to all things Elvis. One room had his cars. One room had info on his Army years. Other rooms covered his first records, his movie career, his outfits, and the other singers that influenced him and those that he influenced.
Elvis CarElvis Outfits
Then we visited Graceland across the street from the museum. The furnishings in each room were amazing. He seemed to have a t.v. in every room.
Livingroom at Graceland
And we walked the grounds. There are 3 horses there (said to be rescue horses). It had been raining earlier and we didn’t see the horses at first. But, then they must have been released from the barn and we got to see them (all with braided manes).
Horse on Grounds at GracelandVisitors Have Left Their Mark On Wall In Front Of Graceland
Almost a month later I still hear snippets of Elvis songs in my head.
The next day we took a bus tour of Memphis with several stops: Sun Recording studio where Elvis and others recorded their early records; The Memphis Welcome Center that has statues of both B. B. King (the King of the Blues) and Elvis (the King of Rock and Roll) and exhibits on other entertainers with a Memphis connection; the Peabody Hotel where live ducks parade in and swim in the lobby pond twice a day; and the Lorraine Motel where the Reverend Martin Luther King was murdered. It is 7. 6 miles from Graceland.
Statue of B. B. KingExhibit In Memphis Welcome Center
I love trees and love to write about trees, but I have not written about one tree that I have spent years learning about…my Family Tree. My ancestors lives were filled with triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow. They were products of genetics and of the times they were born into. I take no pride in their accomplishments nor do I apologize for their faults.
Trees (oil on cardboard by Barbara Block Downes, my mother)
My paternal grandmother, Mary, loved me and I loved her. She was born into a large family and had lots of funny stories about her siblings and other relations. Sometimes a story would be told about her grandfather and others that related to Civil War days. My brother and I would ask her if her family had owned slaves back then. My memory is that she would change the subject, that she didn’t want to discuss this. But, I just took it for granted that these landowning farmers in rural Louisiana were slave owners.
Relatives on both sides of my family have researched our genealogical lines and I have lots of information. My tree is full of names and dates, with a few short sketchy details of their lives. But, I wanted to learn more about who all these names were as people. This became especially important to me after my parents died. The more I researched my family history, the more I felt connected to all those that came before.
My grandmother Mary and some of her other female relatives documented the ancestors back to Revolutionary War times. She was a proud DAR member and gave my brother and I copies of her DAR documents and brief histories of her family. There were gaps in the information about some of the people and I set about filling in the gaps. Besides a few trips to places my ancestors lived, I have mostly done online research. I have learned much from old newspapers and other documents. The census records are interesting and easily accessible online. They have given me a clearer picture of the people I came from.
In the 1860 U. S. Census for Franklin County, Louisiana (taken in August 1860), her grandfather (my great great grandfather), William Buie, is shown to be 39 years old and living with his wife and 3 children and 3 unrelated people. One of his children was 7 year old Henry H. Buie, my great grandfather. William’s occupation is farmer. His real estate was listed as worth $15,400 and his personal property being worth $1,715.
This led to me checking the U. S. Slave Schedules of 1850 and 1860. My people were well represented in these records and were not hard to find. This validated my suspicions that many on my grandmother Mary’s side were slave owners. But, I also was unprepared for my emotional reaction as I read through the records for the first time. It is one thing to have an abstract idea that “Yes, my ancestors probably owned slaves.” I did the search in the records for William Buie and a record popped up on my computer screen…Yay! I found him! Then I read on…a long list of humans with no names, only sex and age listed. I cried. There were 17 souls listed as enslaved ranging in age from 35 years down to a 1 year old (including twin 6 year old boys).
Partial list of the 17 enslaved people listed as owned by my great great grandfather
Now, imagine you are a descendant of these nameless people and you want to know who they were. This is an almost impossible task. However, some documents (wills, bills of sale, runaway slave ads) contain the names of the enslaved. There is a collaborative project called Beyond Kin, where family historians can upload and share documents. So, if I find a document about my White ancestors that has the names of the enslaved, I can share this with Black and Mixed race people doing their own genealogical research.
Soapbox: The more I hear people putting down “Woke” culture, the angrier I get. The opposite of woke is asleep. Being asleep can be a great escape from the nastiness that humans inflict on one another…but, living in a dream world does not make the world better and it doesn’t make us better as people.
I am a bit more awake after seeing these records of my family and I see with different eyes. I don’t feel guilty coming from these people. I do not apologize for them. I have gotten more interested in History.
Some people are upset about our children learning some parts of our history. I say we should let kids look at these records (and other documents) and then challenge them to think about what they are reading. The way history was taught to me in school was boring. Names of presidents and dates of battles and yada, yada, yada…If I had been taught in a different way…learning about the people as real people I could relate to, I would have learned so much more. White kids looking at Slave Schedules does not have to lead to them feeling guilt because they are White. But, perhaps it could lead them to a better understanding of why their Black peers can not “Just get over it.”
“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”- William Faulkner
“No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.”- Martha Beck
*According to one historical source William was against secession because he did not think the South would win. He did not serve as a soldier. (From “Boeuf Prairie Methodist Church- A History -The Church- The People- The Community-1833-2008”)
I wanted to write this month’s blog about Black History month and planned on focusing on Harriet Tubman. I had read a wonderful biography about her entitled Harriet Tubman- The Road to Freedom by Catherine Clinton. I wanted to share more about her life beyond her work with the Underground Railroad. But, I have gotten distracted by news coverage of the Russian invasion of the country of Ukraine. So, I will not write about Harriet Tubman this month, but will still celebrate Black History month.
On February 23rd, I discovered live television coverage of a United Nations Security Council meeting about the Russian threat to Ukraine. This was on CSPAN. I sat before the t.v. with my husband and daughter and watched as most of the ambassadors condemned Russia’s actions. There were ambassadors of different races and cultures of course, but also a good number of women representing their countries. Particularly interesting to me was our United States Ambassador, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who has held the position for about a year. She was one of the people speaking in condemnation of the Russian president. Here is a photo of her that evening:
As I have watched coverage of the crisis on t.v., I have noticed quite a few black experts on Ukraine being interviewed by the news anchors. One person who has appeared several times over the past few days is a black man hunkered down in Kyiv. His name is Terrell Jermaine Starr and the following video is from MSNBC (if the link does not work, please search for him on the internet):
As a proud American, I believe we need to not turn a blind eye to our history. We need to continually examine our past and how it continues to shape us. But, I also believe we need to pay close attention to the history that is being made right now. And these two people are both witnesses to history and are growing history.
Sunflower- the National Flower of Ukraine
*A link to another piece about Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield:
Natural Musings 