Nashville to Memphis

Jarvis Harris and Joe Foss are telling local audiences about their five-week, 4,600-mile tour of Black historical sites across the United States last fall.  For additional insights into their journey and anti-racist work, please visit their website, AcceptingOthers.com. 

After an easy three-hour drive to Memphis, we were surprised that it was super quiet there, almost dead, as there was little to no traffic and very few folks about at all.

Maybe due to it being Columbus Day, a Monday, we thought Memphis was literally closed for business, especially compared with what we just experienced in Nashville. We located the train station, and then turned in our rental car and caught an Uber ride back to the train station.

Joe: Since our Amtrak train was leaving Memphis for New Orleans at 4:40 a.m. the next morning, we decided to not get a hotel room and just hoof it for the day as what we wanted to see what was within walking distance anyhow. We checked our luggage with Amtrak, then walked across the street to have lunch. After that we walked to the Lorraine Motel and the National Civil Rights Museum.

Jarvis:  We had a very uplifting and enlightening visit at the National African American Music Museum. It was phenomenal to learn that much of America's music derived from African American music. We were also excited to explore another historic site in Memphis that fills our history books: The Lorraine Motel. Obviously, the motel itself didn’t seem too ominous once we arrived, but it was a little eerie to realize that this was where Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. was assassinated.

The National Civil Rights Museum is right next to the Lorraine Motel. It is chock full of the history of the civil rights movement, the people and the events involved. I enjoyed this museum even though much of what we were seeing had been covered in other places we’d been. I appreciated that this one place displayed the wide spectrum of how the civil rights movement affected and influenced America. 

They covered many organizations involved in the struggle for equality, like the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Congress of Racial Equality and, of course, the NAACP  (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People).

Joe and I are both avid museum guys, so we like to take our time and read and explore what the museums have to offer. I try to take myself back to the places and think of what those people were thinking or experiencing during that time. When we entered this facility they informed us that we only had about two hours to visit, including the gift shop. I had to skip some of the last exhibits since, again, I wanted to take my time exploring the gift shop.  They were literally locking the doors behind us as we walked out.

This sign shows the inconvenient hours of the Amtrak Memphis terminal. At least we weren’t turned away for our color; they were just closed for business. Train schedules and stations in America are not what they used to be.

Courtesy of Joe & Jarvis

Vagrants in Memphis

Joe:  Our Memphis Amtrak connection was our only really late departure at 4:40 a.m.

We were greatly inconvenienced by that as the Amtrak terminal closed at 11 p.m. and didn’t open again until 4:30 a.m. Bummer!  We had to figure out a way to kill some time that would be really interesting and challenging.

First the Amtrak terminal was a very old train station that had been converted to a hotel; its lobby was very cool — with a bar and DJ music. We decided to hang out there for dinner and drinks, which got us by until 11 p.m. when they closed up, and we had to leave.

We were surprised and disappointed to find no late-night restaurants or bars nearby that we could kill time at. So, now, with the closed Amtrak terminal and closed hotel lobby (the hotel staff person said we could only wait outside since we didn’t have a room). We were vagrants! After pacing the tracks for an hour or so, I was feeling cold and cranky and needed to figure something else out for the next four hours.

We decided to catch an Uber ride to the Memphis airport, where we could hang out in its heated terminal area, allowing us to stay warm while we waited for the Amtrak terminal to open at 4:30 a.m. and catch our train to New Orleans. It was quite a night, but we suffered through another adventure.

Jarvis Harris, of Lacey, is a retired U.S. Army veteran and former Pierce County corrections officer who now dedicates his time to personal passions and volunteering. Born and raised in Philadelphia, he settled in Lacey during his Army service.

Joe Foss, of Tacoma, is a Navy veteran and retired business owner who has been actively engaged in projects addressing racism in America since 2012.