The Lorraine Motel in Memphis was one of the few hotels for blacks in Memphis.  Famous guests included Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole and BB King.  It was where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed the night he was assassinated.  His trip to Memphis was to speak in support of the Memphis sanitation workers, who were protesting poor treatment, discrimination and dangerous working conditions.  The front facade of the motel still stands just as it did in 1968.  Behind it is the National Civil Rights Museum that tells the ugly history of slavery and discrimination in the United States.