The Square

A little known fact about the balcony at the Civil Rights Museum is that the small square that is cut out of the concrete was where Dr. King's head lay after he was shot. The blood stains on that spot were so deep that they could not be cleansed, and they had to replace that small square. Standing at the window at staring at that square affects me deeply, and though this was my second trip to the museum I was deeply shaken afterward. The Square transports me to that evening, April 4th,1968. I am standing at the window looking out as Dr. King is standing on the balcony hollering down to the parking lot as his friends are leaving. I can see the gun barrel emerge from the window across the street, the crack of the rifle, Dr. King lying on the concrete. The reality of the death of maybe the most important man of the 20th century hits me like an atomic bomb, centered at the bleached concrete square on that tiny little balcony. The death of Dr. King will stain the history of Memphis like the blood stained square on the balcony, incapable of being cleansed. The problem is that we cannot just cut it away and replace it with a clean square, we have to learn to live with our city's jaded past and use the legend of Dr. King to move towards a more racially united Memphis.