Your Memphis to Nashville Stops on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail

Have a historic stay at The Peabody Hotel Memphis featuring beautiful accommodations, a hotel lobby that seems to be from a dream and a nod to the duck history of the hotel in the duck-shaped soaps, stitched ducks on towels and stationary and more found in the rooms. 

• Parking information: Valet parking is $37+ per night and self-parking is $28+ per night.
   
• Accessibility features: Enjoy accessible public spaces, accessible bathrooms, ADA pool chair lift, elevator to guest room floors and more. Service animals are welcome. The 10 accessible guest rooms include braille detail on door signs, required maneuvering clearances, portable tub seats, accessible shelving and hanging bars.
   
• Highlights: Enjoy relaxing spa treatments at Feathers Spa and treat yourself to a culinary masterpiece when you dine at Chez Philippe inside the hotel.

There’s a reason The Arcade Restaurant is Memphis’ oldest café. Visitors and locals come here for the wide selection of breakfast items. French toast smothered in syrup, fluffy sweet potato pancakes that are a favorite of the Food Network, omelets by your own design, and more. 

• Parking: Free parking lot behind the restaurant accessible via G.E. Patterson Avenue and free street parking is available on surrounding streets.
   
• Accessibility: The Arcade Restaurant is wheelchair accessible.
   
• Operational hours: 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily
   
• Highlights: The Eggs Redneck which the Travel Channel is a fan of featuring sausage, chicken or bacon with biscuits in gravy, eggs and hash browns.

Start your visit of Memphis historical sites. Clayborn Temple’s ties to the Civil Rights movement reached a pinnacle in 1968 when it became headquarters for the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. Starting in February 1968, nearly 1,000 sanitation workers marched twice daily from the church to City Hall carrying signs declaring “I AM A MAN.” In the evenings, strikers, their families, and supporters filled the sanctuary for inspirational speeches. Unfortunately, on April 28, 2025 Historic Clayborn Temple suffered a devastating loss due to a fire and is currently closed. 

Located next to Clayborn Temple, the I AM A MAN Plaza features a sculpture alongside a wall filled with the names of those who participated and rallied in the historic 1968 Memphis sanitation strikes.

Mason Temple Church of God in Christ is where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his prophetic “Mountaintop” speech on the eve of his assassination – April 3, 1968. On that night, 3,000 people demanded to hear Dr. King as he came to Memphis to support the 1,300 striking sanitation workers who met regularly at this church. Unfair working conditions and poor pay led to the strike and the response of a court injunction that banned further protests. King hoped their march would overturn the court order. 

• Parking: Free street parking is available.
   
• Accessibility: Accessible entrance, restrooms, parking spots and seating.
   
• Hours: Open to the public, but it's recommended to call before visiting at 901-947-9300.
   
• Highlights: To inspire the people, Dr. King famously said, “...And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.”

You can’t make a trip to Memphis and not sample the fine barbecue joints around town. One of the iconic places to dine is Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous where heavenly ribs are just an order away. The meat falls off the bone and is doctored in an array of spice that will make you want even more. 

• Parking: Rendezvous has a valet service available to make parking a breeze; the cost is $12. Edley's and Martin's both offer dedicated lots for their patrons.
   
• Accessibility: Rendezvous is accessible by elevator; when you arrive, let their staff know and they will assist. Edley's Bar-B-Que is wheelchair accessible, along with Martin's Bar-B-Que.
   
• Operational hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday
   
• Highlights: Order the barbecue sandwiches served with slaw and beans, brisket, chicken and even lamb riblets.

Get some fresh air at T.O Fuller State Park full of hiking and history. This was the first state park open for African Americans east of the Mississippi. It’s named after Dr. Thomas O. Fuller, an African-American pastor, politician, educator, author and civic leader who empowered and educated African Americans. Spend the night under the stars at one of the 45 campsites in the park that are RV accessible. Each campsite is equipped with a picnic table, lantern hanger, fire ring, grill, electrical and water hook-ups. The campground has amenities such as a bathhouse, laundry, picnic shelter and playground.

• Parking: Free onsite parking is available.
   
• Accessibility: T.O. Fuller State Park offers all-terrain wheelchairs for both children and adults for free. Advanced requests are highly encouraged to ensure the availability of wheelchairs. Accessible hiking trails include the one-way accessible trail in the Wildlife Habitat Area that features wildflowers, songbirds and waterfowl. A Colorblind Viewfinder helps alleviate red-green colorblindness so everyone can experience nature's beautiful colors. Adult-sized changing tables are also available.
   
• Highlights: The park’s natural features are on full display when you hike the 4-mile, natural-surface Discovery Trail. The moderate path leads you to the Chucalissa Indian Village, wetlands, forest and more. 

After sampling a few cocktails, head to Catherine & Mary's for Italian comfort food with rich southern ingredients in downtown Memphis. You can be sure it will be a meal to remember.

• Parking: Complimentary valet parking is available Monday-Saturday. Surrounding paid lots, garages and street parking are available around the restaurant.
   
• Accessibility: Catherine & Mary's is fully wheelchair accessible.
   
• Operational hours: 4:30-10 p.m. Monday-Sunday
   
• Highlights: Start with the Brussels sprouts, meatballs or focaccia (or all three!) as starters. Then, dig into pasta dishes from mafalde with beef straccato to rigatoni smothered in a rich gravy and parmesan, pork chops, New York strip steak and lamb sirloin.

You’ll want everything on the menu at Sunrise Memphis. Give your day a boost with the Dirty South biscuit sandwich topped with pimento cheese, fried green tomato and the in-house Sunrise sauce. Plates include the decadent banana bread French toast, breakfast tacos stuffed with chorizo, pico de gallo, salsa verde and cotija, and the barbecue chicken omelet with shredded chicken, cheddar cheese, barbecue, onions, onion straws and more. There’s also a vegan bowl full of tofu, spinach, peppers, onions, drizzled with sriracha and scallions. 

• Parking: Limited onsite parking as well as street parking is available.
   
• Accessibility: Wheelchair-accessible entrance, seating, restrooms and parking spaces are available.
   
• Operational hours: 
  Downtown location: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Sunday
  East Memphis: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Sunday
   
• Highlights: The gravy bowl is a favorite with a biscuit, sausage, scrambled eggs and cheese all covered in sausage gravy. 

See artifacts and learn the history of the Civil Rights Movement and human rights movements worldwide at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. History dating from 1619 to 2000 is shared through videos, text, images, and multimedia elements. The Museum is open every day except Tuesdays.

• Parking: Free parking is available for museum guests. To enter the the visitor lot, turn north on Mulberry Street from G.E. Patterson Avenue.
   
• Accessibility: Fully ADA accessible. The museum offers complimentary tour guide and sign-language interpretation with at least two weeks' notice. Complimentary tour guide interpretation for visually-impaired guests is available with 48-hours notice. To coordinate, contact Guest Services at 901-521-9699 or email dhubbard-smith@civilrightsmuseum.org. Assisted listening devices and transcripts for audio elements are available. Trained service animals are welcome. 
   
• Operational Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday-Sunday
   
• Highlights: The Museum has memorialized the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Dr. King was murdered, and also preserved Room 306 where Dr. King stayed the night before his assassination.

WDIA Radio is the first radio station in the country programmed entirely for the African American community. The station aired on June 7, 1947, featuring African American radio personalities and brought awareness to a relatively new market of listeners. Though currently not in use, visit the historic WDIA building in Downtown Memphis, see the WDIA neon marquee, and take a photo outside of the original entrance where this famed station first began broadcasting.

• Parking: Street parking is available.
   
• Highlights: The station’s influence and popularity reached 10% of the Black population in the U.S. Music legends such as B.B. King and Rufus Thomas got their start by working at WDIA. 

Created in 1841, Beale Street Historic District is one of the most iconic streets in America. It began as a thriving area for commerce, musicians, Black-owned businesses and was home to Ida B. Wells’ anti-segregationist newspaper. Four District locations are particularly significant to the Civil Rights Movement: Historical Daisy Theatre/Randle Catron Interpretive Center, Withers Collection Museum & Gallery, First Baptist Beale Street Church; and Robert R. Church Park.

• Parking: There is ample parking within 100 yards of Beale Street. The 250 Peabody Place Parking Garage near Fourth Street is an ideal parking location for its affordability and security.
   
• Accessibility: While the street itself is ADA accesssible, contact individual businesses on Beale Street that you're interested in visiting to learn about their accessibility details.
   
• Highlights: Enjoy live music flowing from venues that flank both sides of the street as well as restaurants and shopping.

Stax Museum of American Soul Music, located on the original site of Stax Records studio since 2003 and now a Tennessee stop on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, pays special tribute to the artists who recorded there, as well as other American soul legends. Many of the artists and musicians who recorded at Stax were from the surrounding neighborhood, local churches and schools. In a time when racial tension was high, the studio was integrated from day one, focusing on producing its own sound, a Memphis sound. 

• Parking: Free on-site parking is available.
   
• Accessibility: Stax Museum of American Soul Music has accessible restrooms and flat paths throughout the museum.
   
• Operational Hours: Open Tuesday–Sunday
   
• Highlights: Stax launched its Virtual Black History Month Tour, which is available at no cost to educators and students throughout the world.

Constructed in 1910, The Hermitage Hotel is Nashville’s Original Hotel and is quite impressive with its grand staircase, ballroom, and veranda blended with Italian and French Renaissance touches. Be swept away in the opulence of your room as each features 500 square feet of space, soft bedding, Wifi, plush robes, an in-room pillow menu in case you’d like buckwheat, down or memory foam pillows, large marble bathrooms and more.

• Parking information: Valet parking is offered at $58 + tax per night. Self-parking lots are located nearby for various overnight rates.
   
• Accessibility: Accessible Queen room and an Accessible king room are available to book. For more accessibility details, please call the hotel at 615-244-3121.
   
• Operation hours: The front desk is open 24/7. 
  Drusie & Darr by Jean-Georges: 7-11 a.m. breakfast, 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. lunch, 5-10 p.m. dinner Monday-Friday; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. brunch, 5-10 p.m. dinner Saturday-Sunday. The Bar is open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. with food service 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 11-1 a.m. and food service is available 11 a.m. to midnight Friday-Saturday. 
  The Pink Hermit: Open daily 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Breakfast is 6-11 a.m. and all-day dining is 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.
   
• Highlights: Famous hotel guests include Oprah Winfrey, The Who, Adam Levine and Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

Shugga Hi Café makes every morning great with breakfast served a variety of ways. The Chicken & Waffles will have you singing with the Shugga Hi Café waffle flavor of the day topped with fried chicken and drizzles with syrup. 

• Parking: Limited parking in the private lot as well as street parking is available. Rideshare is highly encouraged.
   
• Accessibility: Shugga Hi Cafe is wheelchair accessible.
   
• Operational hours: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday-Saturday; Sunday Brunch is 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
   
• Highlights: Signature dishes include Da Bomb plate that features two biscuits, eggs, bacon, sausage, cheese and honey butter and The Big Man steak and eggs featuring a meaty rib-eye steak, two eggs and toast. 

Make your way to 14th Avenue North in downtown Nashville to see Clark Memorial United Methodist Church. It's the oldest black United Methodist Church in Nashville, first established in 1865. The church was a frequent meeting space for the Civil Rights Movement. Contact the church for visiting details at 615-329-4464.

• Parking: Ample, onsite parking is available.
   
• Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible parking spots, entrance and restrooms are available onsite.
   
• Highlights: James Lawson hosted non-violent protest workshops for Nashville college students; and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. hosted the annual Southern Christian Leadership Conference here.

One of the sites to see in Nashville are "Witness Walls". the home of Z. Alexander Looby, a lawyer for civil rights cases, was bombed, students and others met with Nashville Mayor Ben West. He agreed segregation was immoral and called for the desegregation of the city's lunch counter. To celebrate this iconic motion, artist Walter Hood designed sculptural concrete walls with period images that show the sitting and marching narratives. "Witness Walls" was dedicated in 2017 and is a project of the Metro Nashville Arts Commission’s Percent for Public Art Program.

• Parking: Parking is available at metered spots nearby and at the Metro Courthouse/Public Square Park Garage.
   
• Accessibility: Witness Walls are wheelchair accessible.
   
• Operational hours: Open 24 hours
   
• Highlights: You can walk through the concrete walls to see Freedom Rides, economic boycotts, marches and more actions made in Nashville during the Civil Rights Movement.

Fisk University is the oldest university in Nashville and full of rich history. In 1865, Fisk School was established by three men - John Ogden, the Reverend Erastus Milo Cravath and the Reverend Edward P. Smith. The school was incorporated as Fisk University in 1867. The Fisk Jubilee Singers famously introduced the world to spirituals as a musical genre, raising funds for the construction of Jubilee Hall, the South's first permanent structure built for the education of African American students. Many students were the leaders of sit-in demonstrations in Nashville as part of the Civil Rights Movement.

• Parking: On-campus parking requires permits. It's best to park near the Carl Van Vecten Gallery and utilize surrounding street parking.
   
• Accessibility: Fisk University is fully ADA accessible.
   
• Highlights: Fisk University is an open campus that welcomes self-guided tours. Contact the Office of Admissions and Recruitment for guided tours at 615-329-8666 or email fusa@fisk.edu to submit a formal request.

Griggs Hall was the first building constructed on the campus of American Baptist College, a seminary for Black students. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, its history is rich. 

• Parking: Visitors can utilize Lot A, the main street-facing lot in front of the campus.
   
• Accessibility: Griggs Hall is fully ADA accessible.
   
• Operational hours: Contact American Baptist College for operational hours at 615-256-1463.
   
• Highlights: The hall became the center for non-violent training and civil rights activity, especially the Nashville sit-in program.

In the heart of downtown Nashville, Woolworth Theatre is now a restored restaurant and live music venue that pays homage to the early days of the civil rights movement. In 1960, it was the site of peaceful sit-ins by African-American students who challenged Woolworth and other stores that did not allow Black and white customers to eat at the same counter. While the sit-ins were peaceful, the reactions of some whites were not. This was the site of civil rights hero John Lewis’ first arrest in his lifelong fight for equality.

• Parking: Many paid lots and garages are located around Woolworth Theatre.
   
• Accessibility: Wheelchair accessible entrance, seating, restrooms and parking spaces around the theatre are available.
   
• Operational hours: Box office is open 3-9 p.m. Thursday-Saturday
   
• Highlights: Today, enjoy live music, Marquee Nashville and Shiners Nashville, where acrobatics meet adult comendy.

The National Museum of African American Music is now a stop on the Tennessee portion of the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The museum is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the many music genres created, influenced and inspired by African Americans. The “One Nation Under a Groove” gallery is focused on how music inspired the Civil Rights Movement and evolved with the issues of the day. 

• Parking: Parking is located beneath the museum for $22 at the validation kiosk in the museum lobby.
   
• Accessibility: Fully ADA accessible with elevators and ramps where necessary.
   
• Operational hours: Noon to 5 p.m. Sunday-Monday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday
   
• Highlights: Record your own song in the recording booth, interact and listen to music along the interactive timeline and kick up your feet at the motion-activated dance stations. Educational programs and events spotlight the achievements and influences of African American music. 

The inspiration for The Twelve | Thirty Club comes from the 19th-century supper clubs when the closing time for restaurants and pubs was 12:30 a.m. The supper clubs were able to stay open because they were deemed as private establishments. The glamour of the age is reflected in the decor, music and ambiance. 

• Parking: Ample paid parking is available in the 5th and Broadway garage.
   
• Accessibility: The Twelve | Thirty Club is ADA accessible with elevators to all floors, wheelchair-accessible entrances, restrooms and seating.
   
• Operational hours: 
  Rooftop: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 11 a.m. to midnight Thursday; 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday
  Supper Club: 4:30-11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 4:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday-Saturday
  Honky Tonk: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday; 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday
   
• Highlights: There are three different menus - the honky tonk menu which has entrees like chicken fried chicken, New York strip steak, meatloaf and burgers; the supper club menu boasting seafood towers, steaks, lobster, king crab, wagyu bolognese and more; and the Rooftop menu which includes cocktails, beers, bottle service and frozen cocktails.