Jacqueline Smith

We talked a lot during my Public History course about Jacqueline Smith and her relationship with the National Civil Rights Museum. Ms. Smith has sat outside of the museum protesting it every day since it opened in 1991. This is because she was the last tenant living in the Lorraine Motel during its stint as a low income housing complex shortly before the museum bought it.

The main issue she protests is displacement of poor people in the South Main district over what could easily be considered a gentrification effort by the city to turn it into the burgeoning arts and creative district it is today. Her signs are likely to say things like "stop glorifying the past:" as the commercializations of a tragic space has become a major economic hub for the city. It adds complexity to the history of a museum that is rarely vilified for anything. Even in an effort to preserve and acknowledge black history, black people are displaced.

It makes me wonder about the fate of a neighborhood like Crosstown. Will that area maintain its cultural diversity in lieu of all the money and commerce being pumped into a relatively low-income area? Who will be displaced by heightened rents, bills, etc? Ms Smith is just one more example of there being an opposing voice to every movement, and it's symbolic of a lot of the civil rights struggle as a whole. Even things like boosting the economy of a neighborhood comes at the risk of further marginalizing its occupants.