On April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King got a call in his room at the Lorraine Motel asking him to come to a civil rights gathering that attracted far more people than anyone expected. So he went to the gathering and delivered his famous "Mountaintop" speech ... off the cuff. Even more remarkable were his words: "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land." The next day he was shot on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel.

In 1991, the motel was converted into the National Civil Rights Museum. The shell of the building is as it was back then, but the inside is one of the most extensive exhibits on a subject that you will ever see. Across the street, the exhibits continue in the old rooming house where James Earl Ray supposedly shot Dr. King. As with the Kennedy assassination, conspiracy theories abound, in this case, fueled by the lack of motive and the use of lots of money while he was on the run for months after the shooting.

Pictures below include a long shot of the motel, a close up of Dr. King's Room 307, and the view from the window the assassin would have had.