A little further down Mulberry Street from my last post sit these two cars.
You’re probably wondering what kind of gosh-durned cotton-pickin’ fool would leave a perfectly good Cadillac out in the weather, at the Curbside? Shouldn’t it deserve a nice garage at its age?
The answer is that they are at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. The wreath is where Dr. King was standing when he was shot on April 4, 1968. He had flown in from Atlanta on Eastern and borrowed a Cadillac.
(source – tumblr.com)
They are both there to re-create this classic photo of the aftermath. A single shot from across the street with a .30-06 rifle ended Dr. King’s life, landing with enough force to rip the tie off his body.
(Source – npr.org)
While I haven’t been inside the museum since it was renovated(one has to watch the budget), it does hold other automotive treasurers, like this replica of the bus that Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of (the actual bus resides in the Henry Ford Museum).
(source – tnvacation.com)
A re-creation of a firebombed bus. Hopefully, the folks up in Nashville won’t mind me using this shot.
Dr. King had come to Memphis to support striking African-American sanitation workers, who were being paid less than European-Americans, which is why the garbage truck is on display.
And finally, another replica–that of James Earl Ray’s car–if you want to start an animated discussion here, bring up whether he was the person who fired the shot. It is still Mustang week, isn’t it?
I’m too young to remember the this event. But like a lot of people, I’ve read about Dr. MLK Jr’s. life, work, and assassination. I knew that he was gunned down, in cold blood, in Memphis, at the Lorraine Motel, but I didn’t know what car he was driving to the place. Fascinating pics.
Very interesting subject, Jana.
On the museum topic, the old state prison in Jefferson City has been open to tours for a few years now; it opened for business as a prison same weekend the Battle of the Alamo was fought. It closed in 2004.
Anyway, James Earl Ray was one of the very few to have escaped from the old prison. Presumably he wa still wanted when King was shot.
I remember hearing on the TV news about Dr King’s death.I was 10 at the time.
The tail fins on the Dodge look like they would just unbolt. It would look better without them. Being painted green even makes them look more tacked on. Flatter tail lamps would complete the improvement.
I agree. I don’t mind the two tone colours, I just don’t care for the fins that adorned the car. I don’t know why car makers felt that fins would’ve made the car look better than without. Unless there’s a functional purpose to them, why put them on the car?
There was no reason for fins other than the auto makers thought the cars look more modern with them. Thankfully the fin era that started in the mid fifties died out by sixty two. Most cars looked like crap with them, the worst being the 59 Cadillac.
Some cars look good with fins, while others look just ugly wearing them. The car in the first picture, while the colour is nice, the rear fins didn’t very attractive.
Blasphemy.
They didn’t just bolt on. The quarter panels were formed that way. Repairing them was expensive.
I learned not that long ago that its only the façade of the motel, there really aren’t any rooms, supposedly the museum is behind the motel façade. I think they may have fixed up the cars a bit, I remember seeing a picture of the cars looking pretty shabby a few years ago.
Yes, it’s just the façade with the exhibits inside, the exceptions being Dr, King’s and James Earl Ray’s rooms.
Jason s., JER also escaped from Brushy Mountain, TN’s supermax, in addition to being on the lam from Jeff City when the shooting happened and he was boarding a flight from London to Rhodesia when the law finally caught up to him. He at least knew how to evade the police.
The clear coat was peeling on the Fins. I agree, they do look like Studebaker fins compared to Chrysler or De Soto fins.I assume they repaint them from time. Putting a cover over them would destroy their purpose.
Interesting, in the original photo, it looks like the 1968 Cadillac Dr. King borrowed was a convertible, with the large rear quarter glass, where the car in the recreation is a Coupe de Ville, not nit picking, just an observation.
The original Cadillac wasn’t white either.
I suppose it would have been nearly impossible to keep a convertible in shape for display, even if it was never intended to run.
I imagine that was one of the reasons, they should probably try to enclose the structure to try to preserve it, though I would expect that funds are probably limited.
A museum of façades seems perfectly appropriate to the subject matter. The Dodge may have been loud, but at least it was dramatic. As ephemerally as these cars were constructed, it’s funny how much higher quality the interiors of ’50s cars looked than anything that the US auto industry would ever construct again, up to and including this moment.
My favourite period in music, and it was not untouched by the enormity of this event. Probably best expressed through Marvin’s whole ‘What’s Going On’ album.
Interesting, the minute I saw the railings in the photo I knew it was the motel where Dr King was killed.
Fins? I doubt they ever served any purpose other than to make cars look like rockets – circular tail lamps had the same intent. Mercedes had very most (by comparison) fins and tried to rationalise them as “parking aids” and they actually work, though when they were the size of the fins on a ’59 caddie they probably prevented vision!
Thank you for this .
-Nate
Out on a limb here, but the color of green on the fins of that Dodge do not look right. I was on pretty intimate terms with the brochure of my 59 Plymouth Fury, and I don’t recall that sort of pea green being one of the choices. It appears to be from the color palette from an either earlier or later era, to me.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but please don’t use the midset of 2014 and apply it and judge the cars, their fins and the mindset in 1959.
Isn’t that what opinions are? Your statement is a bit confusing. Who judged the cars, and fins, and the mindset of 1959?