MLK’s legacy drawing crowds to Memphis
Downtown hotels are booked. Restaurants have penciled in larger staffs. Airbnb rentals are full. The reason: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Tens of thousands of visitors are expected in Memphis starting this weekend to see the events marking the 50th anniversary of the late civil rights leader’s assassination at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.
Already, in recent days, tourist New podcast highlights MLK’s legacy. sites and restaurants have begun brimming. Exactly how many more people will fly, drive, bus or ride the train in for the commemoration isn’t clear.
“The eyes of the world certainly will be on Memphis. It’s going to be a busy week. But is it going to be 10,000, 20,000 or 100,000 people coming in? I don’t know,” said Kevin Kane, chief executive of the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau.
Tourism experts point out the Memphis area’s 69,000-employee hospitality industry is used to gear-
Inside: MLK50 merchandise: From books to T-shirts and shot glasses. Page 13A
ing up for big out-of-town crowds attending events such as the annual Liberty Bowl football extravaganzas and Beale Street Music Festival. These events can generate $20 million worth of additional economic activity in a few days at hotels, bars, restaurants, caterers, food wholesalers and taxi services.
“I think it’ll be comparable to Memphis hosting the NCAA basketball tournament,” said Wayne Tabor, president of the Metropolitan Memphis Hotel & Lodging Association. “It’s hard to say how big the impact is going to be because this is a time of year that is busy anyway.”
Turning the civil rights icon’s death into a showpiece event gives pause to Memphis insurance executive Fred L. Davis, who was chairman of the Memphis City Council in 1968 when the municipal sanitation workers’ strike brought King to the city.
“Memphis is reaping very serious economic rewards as a result of the tragedy that happened here,” Davis said. “That appears to me to be rather ironic.”
Irony or not, modern media in cities throughout the world focus attention on significant dates in history. Memphis, the city where an outsider who grew up near St. Louis chose to assassinate King, is now spotlighted.
In Europe, the British Broadcasting Corp. has aired “#MLK50: America after his dream.” In Germany, the newspaper Der Spiegel recently reported: “50 years ago Martin Luther King was murdered. He has changed his country like few before him.’’
Publicity surrounding King’s death is expected to spur tourism, especially visits to the National Civil Rights Museum established at the Lorraine Motel in 1991.
The museum has grown from a chronicle of King and his place in the civil rights movement to a prominent meeting space for scholars and activists who discuss the future of American social progress.
In an article published Wednesday, the New York Times advised visitors coming to Memphis to be prepared: “The story the museum tells stirs emotions but leaves them unresolved,” the Times reports. “In many ways the experience, whether intended or not, is in sync with the political atmosphere of the country today. Uplift feels anachronistic; progress is cut off; the future left unimagined.”
With broadcasters and publishers worldwide bringing attention to Memphis, almost all of the 2,800 rooms in the 16 hotels located Downtown are already booked deep into next week, tourism experts said.
Many of the other 224 hotels in Greater Memphis remain less than fully rented out, while Airbnb landlords in Midtown and Downtown have seen an uptick in demand. Airbnb refers to owners renting out regular homes or rooms in their living quarters to customers on the internet.
“This time of year is always busy but I think it got busier earlier this year,” said Memphis real estate executive Linda Sowell about the Airbnb rentals. “I think MLK50 has had a lot to do with it.’’
Restaurant entrepreneur Deni Reilly sees the same trend Downtown. Her restaurant, The Majestic Grille, has been filled to capacity for lunch and dinner almost every day for weeks.
It’s partly because of MLK visitors. But specifically how many patrons of the South Main Street restaurant are in town because of the late religious leader? “It’s kind of an unknown,” Reilly said.
Noted Memphis Restaurant Association board member Sean Danko, president of Kooky Canuck, a restaurant on South Second Street, “Tourists have been arriving early in conjunction with Spring Break holidays to witness what’s going on and take part in the events surrounding the commemoration.”
Adding to the crowds of diners are showings of the musical Wicked at the Orpheum, the recent move of ServiceMaster Global Holdings’ 1,200 headquarters employees into nearby Downtown offices, many of the 12,000 Downtown residents stopping in for lunch and dinner and the Memphis-based Church of God in Christ drawing hundreds of church leaders into the city from throughout the nation for regular meetings.
At the National Civil Rights Museum, president Terri Lee Freeman isn’t sure how many people will crowd South Main next week outside the museum.
In 2008, she said, about 15,000 people attended museum events commemorating the 40th anniversary of King’s death. “We believe that number will easily be doubled this year,” Freeman said.
Memphis Police Department officials anticipate up to 100,000 people will throng Downtown next week, although it’s not clear how many will come from outside the region and how many will be from Memphis and the Mid-South, an area of almost 2 million people living within a two-hour drive of Downtown.
Fred Davis, who presided in 1968 as the first African American ever elected City Council chairman, figures the crowd will add up.
“It’ll be very profitable as far as tourism is concerned. I’m not really complaining,” Davis said. “Everyone is trying to be as respectful of Dr. King’s legacy as they can be. There is a legacy here. You can’t forget it. You have to respond to it.’’