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Nation in Brief : TENNESSEE : Protester Remains at Site of King’s Death

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From Times staff and Wire reports

A protester living in a tent outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, got a two-day reprieve from a court-ordered eviction because sheriff’s deputies do not do that kind of work on weekends. Jacqueline Smith, 39, has camped near the motel since March, 1988, in an effort to stop the state from converting it into the Lorraine National Civil Rights Museum. She maintains that King’s memory would be better served by establishing a shelter for the homeless or a free clinic. A county court judge had ordered Smith out by noon Friday, but a crowd of about 200 supporters gathered and cheered when she refused to leave.

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