A crucial part of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work in the Civil Rights movement was protecting voting rights. Instead of MLK Day celebrations this year, the leader’s family is spearheading a supportive push towards voting rights reform across the country. Statues honoring Dr. King’s activism and messages pay tribute not only to the life and legacy of the great Civil Rights activist but to a critical part of our country’s history.
Here are just five of the dozens around the country — and the world — to put on your travel list.
The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee
In its early days, the Lorraine Motel became one of the nation’s earliest Black-owned establishments and housed many prominent Black figures such as jazz artists Nat King Cole and Sarah Vaughan. The storied site’s history turned much darker when it became the location of Dr. King’s assassination in 1968. In 1991, the motel was transformed into the National Civil Rights Museum, a facility that now hosts interactive exhibits, historic collections, dynamic speakers and special events. In 2013 and 2014, the museum underwent a $27.5 million renovation, adding new interactive media to its galleries and facilitating a rotating showcase of exhibitions such as “Voices of the Civil Rights Movement” and “The Negro Motorist’s Green Book and American Story.”