Memphis Civil Rights Icon Clayborn Temple: Eyewitness Shares Heart-Wrenching Fire Story

Memphis, TN — The renowned Clayborn Temple, a historic site listed on the National Registry of Historic Places since 1979, has tragically succumbed to fire. Witness M. Martin, an entrepreneur, was stunned to see the site, pivotal to the 1968 sanitation workers' strike, engulfed in flames. He felt a profound impact witnessing the destruction. Once a Presbyterian church founded in 1892 and later sold to the African Methodist Episcopal Church, renovations had begun on the $6 million project. Memphis officials continue to emphasize its irreplaceable legacy as a symbol of civil rights.