The Legacy Building, also known as the Boarding House where Dr. King’s alleged assassin laid in wait and fired the fatal shot, will be renovated with powerful exhibitions that draw from Dr. King’s last book Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community. This theme illustrates the ongoing tension that exists when a variety of events, actions, policies, and other factors push American society in either direction as we constantly navigate along the continuum.
Founders Park Extends the Mission of the Museum Beyond Its Walls
There’s a quiet power in standing in a place where history happened. And in Memphis, there are few spaces more sacred than the ground outside the National Civil Rights Museum. For decades, visitors have stood outside the Lorraine Motel, eyes fixed on the balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. last stood. But what if that moment—of pause, of reverence, of reckoning—could become a longer conversation? What if that space could expand into something more living, more communal, more purposeful?
That’s what BlueCross Healthy Places at Founders Park will offer when it reopens Fall 2025.
Thanks to BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation, BlueCross Healthy Places at Founders Park and the Legacy Terrace serve as spaces for honoring the legacy of civil rights leaders and fostering community reflection. This enhanced outdoor area will offer enlarged spaces, additional seating, audio and staging capabilities, and landscaped reflection areas. The park will also serve as a venue for large tours, school groups, and signature events. These spaces are designed to be accessible, inclusive hubs for dialogue, education, and connection and to invite visitors to recommit to the principles of equity, justice, and social change.
As we prepare to welcome visitors into the new Founders Park, we choose something meaningful. We choose openness. We choose belonging. We choose the hard work of togetherness over the easy retreat of separation.
Dr. King once asked us to decide between chaos and community. We choose COMMUNITY over chaos.
Join Us on This Journey
With completion expected in 2025, the two-year project impacts the museum campus west of Mulberry Street, including the first-floor expansion of the historic boarding house that will include flexible digital exhibitions and exhibits on the Poor People’s Campaign and Freedom Award. The second-floor exhibitions will explore the Civil Rights Movement since the assassination and how protests have shaped our culture in answering the question, “Where do we go from here?” The third-floor exhibitions will examine how today’s activism impacts our communities and policies around poverty, education, jobs, housing, criminal justice, and gender equality.
The Museum’s Founders Park will be renamed the BlueCross Healthy Place at Founders Park and will include gathering and event spaces and contemplative respite areas. This major renovation of Founders Park has been made possible thanks to a multi-million dollar investment by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Foundation.