Posted on 01/12/2012 1:47:29 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Memphis officials on Thursday approved naming a city street after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., nearly 44 years after the civil rights leader was killed in the city.
The 10 members of the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board voted unanimously to re-name a nine-block downtown stretch as Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue. Previously called Linden Avenue, it runs in front of the FedExForum, where the Memphis Grizzlies play their home games, and parallel to Beale Street, the famous tourist drag.
The street also runs near the Clayborn Temple, where King rallied with striking sanitation workers days before he was assassinated by James Earl Ray on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. King also led a march on Linden Avenue during the strike.
The city already had a section of Interstate 240 dedicated to King, but the naming of a prominent street in the city's tourist district is being seen as a symbol that the city is finally taking steps to heal the wound caused by the assassination
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
They should just call it Murder & Mayhem Blvd.
What, no Malcolm the Tenth Way?
At night, get off that street as if your life depended on it. It does.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.