NATION : King Museum Protester Ousted

Sheriff’s deputies today went to the Lorraine Motel, the site of Martin Luther King’s assassination, and dragged away a woman who had been camped outside the site for nearly three years in the hope of thwarting plans to turn the motel into a museum.

Jacqueline Smith, 39, who lived in the motel for 11 years and was its last resident, and four supporters were hauled across the street and her belongings were left in the street.

While construction workers at the Lorraine National Civil Rights Museum waited, six deputies and two assistant chiefs dragged away Smith and four other people who had joined her at her tent while they were praying.

Smith has been protesting the state’s decision to build the Lorraine National Civil Rights Museum at the motel, saying that King would be better honored by a homeless shelter or medical clinic at the site.