I had not heard of the famous Peabody Ducks before this trip. Everyday since the 1930’s, ducks are paraded at 11am down from the rooftop of the hotel to the central lobby fountain with much fanfare and ado. They are them paraded back up the their rooftop home at 5pm every evening. There are three ducks now and we were told the ducks are changed every 3 months. All of this is done to much fanfare led by a Duck Master. Hotel residents and others fill the lobby to watch.
The best thing to do In Memphis, is to visit the National Civil Rights Museum on the location of the Lorraine Hotel, the site of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968. The museum is built into the motel and covers the entire history of the civil rights movement beginning with slavery in the south, all forms of integration attempts, and end ending in the hallway between two hotel rooms, one where Martin Luther King stated and one where other men in his entourage stayed. They have put glass windows in the walls and you can look in and see how the rooms looked in that fateful day. You can then walk across the street and go into the former boarding house where James Earl Ray fired the killing shots. We spent about 3 hours in the museum. The exhibits are very powerful and extremely informative. Standing in the hallway between the two hotel rooms and looking out at the exact spot where Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, gave me goose bumps. This is a must see in Memphis!
