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Book Cover for: Room 306: The National Story of the Lorraine Motel, Ben Kamin

Room 306: The National Story of the Lorraine Motel

Ben Kamin

Silver Medal Winner:Independent Publisher Book Awards -Multicultural Nonfiction (2013)
A tragic landmark in the civil rights movement, the Lorraine Motel in Memphis is best known for what occurred there on April 4, 1968. As he stood on the balcony of Room 306, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, ending a golden age of nonviolent resistance, and sparking riots in more than one hundred cities. Formerly a seedy, segregated motel, and prior to that a brothel, the motel quickly achieved the status of national shrine. The motel attracts a variety of pilgrims--white politicians seeking photo ops, aging civil rights leaders, New Age musicians, and visitors to its current incarnation, the National Civil Rights Museum. A moving and emotional account that comprises a panorama of voices, Room 306 is an important oral history unlike any other.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Michigan State University Press
  • Publish Date: Mar 15th, 2012
  • Pages: 200
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.90in - 6.00in - 0.60in - 0.70lb
  • EAN: 9781611860498
  • Categories: Ethnic Studies - American - African American & Black StudiesDiscriminationSocial History

About the Author

Kamin, Ben: - Ben Kamin is a nationally known clergyman, teacher, counselor, and author of eight books on human values, civil rights, and spirituality.

Praise for this book

. . . an extremely personal view of the tragic, yet ultimately triumphant, account of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

--Clayborne Carson, Professor & Director, Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute

With this unforgettable book, Ben Kamin again shows us why he is the singular narrator of the Memphis and civil rights saga. This is a story that has to be told, and only Kamin could have done it so patiently and faithfully.

--T. George Harris, former Bureau Chief of TIME-LIFE, past Senior Editor of LOOK, founding Editor of Psychology Today and Spirituality and Health

A great contribution to the literature on the subject.Kamin does a masterful job of using the oral history tradition to bring fresh context to one of America's greatest tragic events. The reader will be enlightened, inspired, and motivated to continue the struggle for freedom and justice.

--Donald W. Murphy, former President and CEO of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center

A worthy and well-timed project and a prime subject for an oral history.

--Hampton Sides, author of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin