MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Bernice King stared with purpose at the video of her father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., concentrating on the tired look in his eyes as he spoke to reporters in the days before he was gunned down at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
She was touring a new multi-media exhibit Monday at the National Civil Rights Museum – located at the site of the old Lorraine Motel, where her father was shot – when she stopped at the old newsreel. King was only 5 when her father was killed on April 4, 1968, while supporting a sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis. Still, she noticed something different about her dad, whose popularity had waned after fighting for years for racial and economic justice.
“I could sense that he was weary and tired,” Bernice King said. “It looked like he was here but not here. When I looked at him other times, he seemed a little bit more vibrant in his eyes. But it almost seemed he was at a place of almost like, resignation.”
Her visit to the museum is one of several events taking place this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, which is Wednesday. Museums, colleges and activists have organized three days of marches, speeches and conferences to remember King and his legacy. Her museum visit came after a speech by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at the Peabody Hotel during a symposium sponsored by the University of Memphis and the museum.
Bernice King walked slowly among the photos, videos and historical accounts that are part of the new exhibit opening to the public Wednesday. Museum officials say the exhibit, which featured photos by Ernest Withers and Art Shay, ties together King’s experiences leading the civil rights movement with present events, such as protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.