MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After a noose was reported in the stall of NASCAR’s only full-time Black driver, NASCAR driver Denny Hamlin’s car will be sporting the logo of the National Civil Rights Museum at Monday’s GEICO 500 race at Talladega.
Memphis-based FedEx, which sponsors Hamlin’s #11 car, made a $500,000 donation to the Memphis museum, which is located at the former Lorraine Motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The company also gave up its logo space on the car’s hood.
Hamlin said he visited the National Civil Rights Museum on Thursday and said he and FedEx wanted to give a voice to the museum.
“This is a tribute to them, and I’m very humbled,” Hamlin told Fox Sports. The museum retweeted the interview and said Hamlin was using his platform to inspire change.
“It was amazing to get that news,” said Faith Morris with the National Civil Rights Museum. “NASCAR has a huge audience. It’s not a very diverse audience, and this is probably a good opportunity to get that kind of message in front of a broader audience.”
The Talladega race had been scheduled for Sunday, but was postponed a day because of weather.
NASCAR recently took a controversial stance by banning the display of the Confederate flag.
Driver Bubba Wallace, the league’s only full-time African-American competitor, reportedly found a noose in his garage after painting a “Black Lives Matter” logo on his car.
“To still be talking about lynching and symbols of lynching and use that as a way of threatening or frightening or even angering someone is really something to still be doing this,” Morris said.
The National Civil Rights Museum tweeted that the museum stood with Wallace, saying. “This repugnant act won’t stop the Movement. We stand with Bubba in the relentless fight against racism.”
