Tennessee Man Breaks Into Civil Rights Museum, Then Falls Asleep

[April 24, 2014]  By Tim Ghianni

(Reuters) — A Tennessee man looking for a place to sleep found a bed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where the Rev. Martin Luther King was shot and killed in 1968.

But the motel is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, and Dexter Anderson, 33, was arrested as he slept Tuesday night in room 308 after a security officer called police to report a break in.

Rooms 306 and 308 of the Lorraine Motel were booked by King's group at the time of his assassination, and have since been preserved behind glass as permanent exhibits in the museum, which traces the movement from slavery through the late 20th century.

Anderson, of Memphis, was charged with vandalism and criminal trespass, Memphis police Sergeant Alyssa Macon-Moore said.

(Reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville; editing by David Bailey, Victoria Cavaliere and David Gregorio)

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