*(Via LA Times) – D’Army Bailey, a lawyer and judge who helped preserve the Memphis, Tenn., hotel where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated and turn it into the National Civil Rights Museum, has died at the age of 73.
Adrienne Bailey said her husband died Sunday after a long illness, surrounded by family at Methodist Hospital in Memphis.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel the day before he was assasinated. (Associated Press)
Bailey led the fight to preserve the crumbling Lorraine Motel, where King was slain while standing on a balcony on April 4, 1968. King had stayed at the hotel while marching and making speeches on behalf of striking sanitation workers who were protesting low wages and unsafe working conditions.
Bailey assembled donors to buy the motel, which ultimately became the National Civil Rights Museum in 1991. The museum has since undergone an extensive renovation.
He also had small acting roles in several films, including “The People vs. Larry Flynt” and “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.”
Former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. called Bailey an “unwavering advocate for justice.”
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