Terri Lee Freeman resigns as National Civil Rights Museum president for new post

Freeman, who led the Tennessee museum, site of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's assassination, leaves for Reginald F. Lewis Museum

Associated Press

Dec 5, 2020

The National Civil Rights Museum in Tennessee is looking for a new leader.

Terri Lee Freeman has resigned as president after serving in that role since 2014, the Memphis-based museum said Thursday.

Terri Lee Freeman was appointed as president of the National Civil Rights Museum in November 2014. (photo courtesy of the National Civil Rights Museum)

Freeman led the museum through the 50th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in 2018. The museum is located on the grounds of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was killed while standing on a balcony on April 4, 1968.

The museum has also been the site of peaceful protests demanding racial equality and denouncing police brutality after the killings of George Floyd and other Black men during confrontations with authorities in recent years.

The Lorraine Motel is seen, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered, and is now part of the complex of the National Civil Rights Museum as they prepare for the 50th anniversary of his assassination on April 1, 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

The Baltimore Sun reported Thursday that Freeman has been named executive director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture in Baltimore. She begins her new job Feb. 15, the newspaper said.

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