The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the major catastrophes in the history of the United States. The African-American clergyman & civil rights leader was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m.
The news of his death was followed by national mourning, as well as riots in more than one hundred U.S. cities including Chicago, New York City, Boston, Detroit, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore, killing 35 and injuring more than 2,500 people. There is an unconfirmed belief that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, the mafia, and Memphis police.
Who is Martin Luther King Jr?
Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement. As a Black church leader, King advanced civil rights for people of color in the United States through nonviolence and civil disobedience.
Inspired by his Christian beliefs and the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi, King led targeted, nonviolent resistance against Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination in the United States. He participated in and led marches for the right to vote, desegregation, labor rights, and other civil rights.
He also oversaw the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott and later became the first president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). As president of the SCLC, he led the unsuccessful Albany Movement in Albany, Georgia, and helped organize some of the nonviolent 1963 protests in Birmingham, Alabama.
King was one of the leaders of the 1963 March on Washington, where he delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The civil rights movement achieved pivotal legislative gains in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance. In 1965, he helped organize two of the three Selma to Montgomery marches. Prior to his assassination, he expanded his focus to include opposition to poverty, capitalism, and the Vietnam War.
Background to the Assassination
Prior to the assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. had received death threats because of his prominence in the civil rights movement. He had also experienced an assassination attempt by a woman named Izola Curry in 1958. Izola stabbed King with a letter opener. After the attempt, Martin Luther King noted on several occasions that murder could not stop the struggle for equal rights.
King had traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking African-American city sanitation workers. The workers staged a walkout on February 11, 1968, to protest unequal wages and working conditions. At the time, Memphis paid black workers significantly lower wages than it did white workers.
King participated in a massive march in Memphis on March 28, 1968, which ended in violence. On April 3, King returned to Memphis to attempt a successful new march later that week. His airline flight to Memphis was delayed by a bomb threat, but he arrived in time to make a planned speech to a gathering at the Mason Temple.
At the Mason Temple, King delivered his famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech. In it, he recalled his 1958 attempted assassination, noting that the doctor who treated him had said that because the knife used to stab him was so close to his aorta, any sudden movement, even a sneeze, might have killed him.
He also seemed to have foreshadowed his own untimely passing, as he ended his speech with these now-historic words: “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 I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
Assassination
On April 4, 1968, King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he and his associates were staying when a sniper’s bullet struck him in the neck. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at about where 7:05 p.m., at the age of 39.
Shock and distress over the news of King’s death sparked rioting in more than 100 cities around the country, including Chicago, New York City, Boston, Detroit, Oakland, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore, killing 35 and injuring more than 2,500 people.
According to Branch, King’s autopsy revealed that his heart was in the condition of a 60-year-old man rather than that of a 39-year-old such as King, which Branch attributed to the stress of King’s 13 years in the civil rights movement
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Funeral
A crowd of 300,000 attended King’s funeral on April 9. Vice President Hubert Humphrey attended on behalf of Johnson, who was at a meeting on the Vietnam War at Camp David; there were fears that Johnson might be hit with protests and abuse over the war if he attended the funeral.
At his widow’s request, King’s last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral; it was a recording of his “Drum Major” sermon given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, he asked that, at his funeral, no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said he tried to “feed the hungry”, “clothe the naked”, “be right on the [Vietnam] war question”, and “love and serve humanity
Amid a wave of national mourning, President Lyndon B. Johnson urged Americans to “reject the blind violence” that had killed King, whom he called the “apostle of nonviolence.” He also called on Congress to speedily pass the civil rights legislation then entered the House of Representatives for debate, calling it a fitting legacy to King and his life’s work.
On April 11, Johnson signed the Fair Housing Act, a major piece of civil rights legislation that prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, or sex. It is considered an important follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Investigation and arrest.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was assigned the lead to investigate King’s death. J. Edgar Hoover, who had previously made efforts to undermine King’s reputation, told President Johnson that his agency would attempt to find the culprit(s).
Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man, later believed to be James Earl Ray, fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Ray had been renting a room in the boarding house.
Police found a package dumped close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both with Ray’s fingerprints. Ray had purchased the rifle under an alias six days earlier A worldwide manhunt was triggered that culminated in Ray’s arrest at Heathrow Airport, London, two months later.
On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Martin Luther King Jr., which was later recanted. He was however convicted and sentenced to a 99-year prison term, in the Tennessee State Penitentiary.
