Following Martin Luther King Jr.’s footsteps in Memphis

Seen from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, the Main Street Boarding House across Mulberry Street is where James Earl Ray purportedly fired the shot that killed King. While many observers still have doubts, others believe he poked his rifle out a small bathroom window on the second floor.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Known historically as Mason Temple, the world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ is where King delivered his famous “Mountaintop” speech, an address that seemed to foreshadow his death one night later.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Newspaper headlines from 1968 are projected onto the side of an old garbage truck inside the National Civil Rights Museum, which shares the story of the sanitation workers strike that fatefully brought King to Memphis.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Cracked plaster is visible on the ceiling of Clayborn Temple, where sanitation workers organized during their 1968 strike. An image of one of their protest marches hangs from the balcony wall.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

The Four Way owner Patrice Thompson checks on orders during the Sunday lunchtime rush at her restaurant in Memphis. Thompson said King routinely stopped by for soul food when he was in town.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Set in an aging neighborhood of small shotgun houses, The Four Way restaurant has been a popular spot for soul food for more than 70 years.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Along Memphis’ famed Beale Street, the Withers Collection museum displays just a fraction of Ernest Withers’ photos. His images cover several key events of the civil rights movement, including the life and death of King.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )

Visitors to the Withers Collection view a series of poignant pictures of King, including one of him relaxing on a bed at the Lorraine Motel two years before his assassination there.   (Jay Jones/Chicago Tribune )