The National Civil Rights Museum Celebrates Everyday People

Located in downtown Memphis at the Lorraine Motel-the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s murder-the National Civil Rights Museum serves as the backdrop for Duncan's (Willie Jerome) concise, accessible history of the civil rights movement (see Children's Books, Jan. 23). The author escorts readers on a tour of the museum's hands-on exhibits, which recreate the settings of such milestones as the 1955 Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott and the 1963 March on Washington, which drew more than 250,000 ``everyday people'' and protestors. Period photos record these events; however, Smith's more recent pictures are likelier to grab readers' attention and make the events of the civil rights movement come alive. He shows, for example, a young visitor to the museum standing beside a statue of Rosa Parks seated on a bus, and a facsimile of a '50s lunch counter, where a group of kids perches opposite realistic-looking statues of demonstrators conducting a sit-in. Duncan's and Smith's informative, affecting collaboration is the next best thing to an actual trip to the museum. Ages 7-11. (Feb.)