Political Quotes

“The city of Memphis lost one of its most outstanding citizens on Sunday evening. D'Army Bailey, who had served as a judge in circuit court for nearly two decades, was a national figure, recognized for such in The New York Times yesterday with a very large and meaningful obituary. D'Army Bailey was singularly responsible for the creation of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. There was a time when the Lorraine Motel, which is the site of the National Civil Rights Museum and the site of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, was going to be foreclosed and possibly demolished; but D'Army Bailey, then an attorney, saw that as wrong and knew that the National Civil Rights Museum should be built at the site of the assassination of Dr. King and that site should be preserved for generations for people to learn about civil rights and learn about Dr. King. He got together, Mr. Speaker, and raised money from individuals and the city of Memphis and was able to save the Lorraine from foreclosure demolition. He then put together the idea of the city, the county, and the State governments funding the beginnings of a national civil rights museum. There was private funding as well, but it was the initial work of D'Army Bailey coming to Nashville, where I was a State senator, and working to get Governor McWherter and the State legislature on board and then the city of Memphis and the county of Shelby.…”