National Civil Rights Museum president resigns for new post

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – 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.

Freeman led the museum through the 50th anniversary of the death of the Rev. 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 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.