National Civil Rights Museum, Civil rights museum in the South Main Arts District, Memphis, United States

The National Civil Rights Museum is a memorial site at 450 Mulberry Street in Memphis, housed in a former motel that documents the civil rights movement from the 17th century to the present day. The exhibition spaces spread across multiple buildings, including the original lodging structure and an administrative building across the street, connected through display cases, panels, and interactive stations.

The site opened in 1924 as the 16-room Windsor Hotel, later the Marquette Hotel. Walter Bailey bought it in 1945 and renamed it for his wife Loree and the song "Sweet Lorraine"; in 1964 he added a second floor, a pool and drive-up rooms and renamed it the Lorraine Motel. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on its second-floor balcony on April 4, 1968; the museum opened on September 28, 1991.

The motel's name combines Walter Bailey's wife Loree with the song "Sweet Lorraine"; he bought the 1924 hotel in 1945 and ran it as upscale lodging for Black guests under segregation. In the 1960s musicians recording at Stax Records stayed here, among them Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett.

The complex sits at 450 Mulberry Street on the south edge of downtown Memphis, about six blocks east of the Mississippi River, in the South Main Arts District. The Young and Morrow Building at 422 Main Street and Canipe's Amusement Store at 418 Main Street are part of the grounds, linked to the motel by a tunnel under the former brushy lot.

A 1968 Cadillac and a 1959 Dodge are parked outside the motel, period vehicles rather than King's own. Across Mulberry Street, the Young and Morrow Building at 422 Main Street, where James Earl Ray first confessed, holds a 12,800-square-foot exhibit with the rifle and fatal bullet.