Tennessee tourism agency launches civil rights trail podcast

June 14, 2022 GMT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee tourism officials are launching a podcast about prominent 1950s and 1960s civil rights events in the state.

Tennessee’s Department of Tourist Development is partnering with Travel South on the Tennessee Civil Rights Trail Podcast. All streaming platforms will carry the three episodes, which feature lesser-known stories.

An episode about Memphis debuts June 20. It will focus on Lorraine Motel co-owner, Lori Bailey, who fell into a coma after a cerebral hemorrhage the night Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. She died five days later, the same day King was laid to rest in Atlanta.

The June 27 episode dives into Nashville’s history. It will explain how “The Music City” nickname stems from 19th century African American Jubilee Singers from Fisk University.

An episode releasing July 4 highlights Clinton, where African-American students in 1956 marked the first integration of a public high school in the South. Bobby Cain became the first to graduate.