"There's so much I didn't know about," he continues, awe-struck by the experience.

After a pause, I answer. "I know what you mean."

The night before he was shot, King delivered his famous and prophetic "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis. Located in a neighborhood that's seen better days, the enormous brick building is the world headquarters for a black denomination known as the Church of God in Christ.

Being Saturday morning, the 3,700-seat temple is quiet when Sam and I visit. But we can easily conjure, almost feel, the night King spoke. The electricity in the air. The cheering and screaming as his voice rose at the end of his stirring oratory: "Well, I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life - longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over, and I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Sam, dressed in a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, seems decidedly out of place in a church. He wanders up toward the pulpit and sits down in the ocean of seats. "You can just imagine it, can't you?" he says.

BIRMINGHAM
"It looks different than I thought it would."

"In what way?" I ask.

"I don't know," he says.