We met Jacqueline Smith on a pretty cold day in spring a few steps next to the Museum of Civil Right

We met Jacqueline Smith on a pretty cold day in spring a few steps next to the Museum of Civil Rights in Memphis. The museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel, where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Jacqueline Smith is black, smart and angry. She wants the Lorraine Motel to be converted to help the poor and to take care of the people Martin Luther King cared for. In particular a house for job training, free college, clinic or other services, not a shrine to Martin Luther King.

She worked and lived in the Lorraine Motel as a housekeeper until 1973. When the motel was closed in 1988, Jacqueline Smith started her vigil against the museum and the gentrification of the neighborhood. At that time the neighborhood around the Lorraine Motel was a lower-income, predominantly black area. Since then owners of these properties have demolished the houses, redeveloping the area with more expensive apartments.

She leaves her place only to find food and go to the bathroom. She has abstained from shelter and comfort for more than 28 years and unless there is change she will not give up her protest.