March 3 rd 1968 Martin Luther King delivered his last speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. 6:01 p.m., April 4 th 1968--Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Loraine Motel in Memphis. Twenty three years later, the National Civil Rights Museum was unveiled and it has continued unabated to showcase and teach the history and legacy of civil rights--from the arrival of the first slaves on the shores of America to lynchings, sit-ins, the Freedom Riders, Rosa Parks in Birmingham,