Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Death threats As early as the mid-1950s, Martin Luther King Jr. had received death threats because of his prominence in the civil rights movement. He had confronted the risk of death, including a nearly fatal stabbing in 1958, and made its recognition part of his philosophy. He taught that murder could not advance the struggle for equal rights. After the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, King told his wife, Coretta Scott King, "This is what is going to happen to me also. I keep telling you, this is a sick society." Memphis King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking African-American city sanitation workers. At the time, Memphis paid black workers a wage of just $1 an hour. There were also no city-issued uniforms, no restrooms, no recognized union, and no grievance procedure for the numerous occasions on which they were underpaid. Dr. King's arrival After being contacted by Reverend James Lawson Jr., King would fly out to Memphis on March 18 to help the strikers, and announced that he would head a march in a few days. King was deeply upset by the failure of the march, and left Memphis the following day, but would return along with Abernathy and administrative assistant Bernard Scott Lee on April 3, although their flight had been delayed due to a bomb threat. "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech At the Mason Temple on the night of April 3, King delivered his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, which soon proved to be his last. King had initially asked Abernathy to speak for him, but after seeing the enthusiasm of the crowd at the temple, Abernathy called King and urged him to address the people instead, to which he agreed. During the speech, 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 referred to a letter written by a young girl who told him that she was happy that he had not sneezed. He used that reference to say: As he neared the close, he prophetically referred to the threats against his life: ==Thursday, April 4, 1968==

Events before the assassination , pictured in 2022 After the night of April 3 went into April 4, King's brother, A. D. King, checked into room 201 at the Lorraine Motel at roughly 1 a.m. after coming from Florida. After King woke up, Walter Bailey, the owner of the Lorraine Motel at the time, later stated that King seemed particularly happy that day. King, a regular smoker, had gone out to the balcony to smoke a cigarette, a habit he hid from the public. King then went to a SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) staff meeting that morning, and the march that was organized to occur on April 5 was moved to Monday, April 8. After the meeting, Abernathy and King had lunch at about 1 p.m., before Abernathy took a nap, and King went to visit his brother to talk with him. At roughly 4 p.m., Abernathy was woken up from his nap by the telephone in his motel room, where King asked Abernathy to join them. After entering room 201, the three men talked for about an hour, before they returned to their room at about 5 p.m., and King informed Abernathy that they were going to Reverend Billy Kyles' to have dinner. They then shaved and dressed for the occasion, and Abernathy told King that he would not be able to attend the poor people's march later that month. In response to this, King told Abernathy that he would consider not going to Washington without him, and attempted to call Reverend Nutrell Long to see if he could handle the revival instead, but was unable to reach him. By 5:30 p.m., Abernathy had agreed to go to Washington with King, before Kyles came into room 306, urging them to hurry up, as they were leaving soon. Assassination Ray allegedly used to assassinate King, found within 30 minutes of the shooting. At about 5:55 p.m., King and Abernathy exited room 306, ready for dinner. King then teased his friend Jesse Jackson about being improperly dressed, and paused on the balcony of room 306 to chat with those in the courtyard below, including his driver, Solomon Jones. Jones then advised King to put on a topcoat, as it was cool outside. King's last words were to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at a planned event. King said, "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty." In response to this, Branch replied, "Okay, Doc, I will." According to the Rev. Samuel Kyles, who was standing several feet away, King was leaning over the balcony railing in front of room 306 when a single shot rang out. At 6:01 p.m., King was struck in the right cheek by a single .30-06 bullet fired from a Remington Model 760 rifle. The bullet broke his jaw before lodging in his right shoulder. The sheer force of the bullet ripped King's necktie off, before he fell backward diagonally onto the balcony. Andrew Young was one of the first to tend to King, and while he initially believed he was dead, he found King still had a pulse. Shortly afterwards, King's head was placed on a pillow, his neck wound was covered with a towel, and a blanket was draped over his torso. He soon lost consciousness. At about 6 p.m., Louw was watching the television in his room, when he heard what initially sounded like a loud noise. Louw then ran out, and saw that King had been shot. He was the only photographer in the area, and soon thereafter went back into his room to retrieve his cameras, taking several pictures of the scene. ==Responses==

Coretta Scott King King's widow, Coretta, had difficulty informing her children that their father was dead. She received a large number of telegrams, including one from Marguerite Oswald, mother of Lee Harvey Oswald, which she regarded as the telegram that had touched her the most. Within the movement , after the assassination For some, King's assassination meant the end of the strategy of nonviolence. Others in the movement reaffirmed the need to carry on King's and the movement's work. Leaders within the SCLC confirmed that they would carry on the Poor People's Campaign that year despite the loss of King. Some black leaders argued the need to continue King's and the movement's tradition of nonviolence. Robert F. Kennedy speech During the day of the assassination while on the campaign trail for the Democratic presidential nomination in Indiana, Senator Robert F. Kennedy learned of the shooting before boarding a plane to Indianapolis. Kennedy was scheduled to make a speech there in a predominantly black neighborhood. Kennedy did not learn that King had died until he landed in Indianapolis. Kennedy's press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, suggested that he ask the audience to pray for the King family and to follow King's practice of nonviolence. Mankiewicz and speechwriter Adam Walinsky drafted notes for Kennedy's use, but he refused them, using some that he had likely written during the ride to the site of the speech. Standing on a flatbed truck, he spoke for four minutes and 57 seconds. Kennedy was the first to tell the audience that King had died. Some of the attendees screamed and wailed in grief. Several of Kennedy's aides were worried that the delivery of this information would result in a riot. When the audience quieted, Kennedy acknowledged that many would be filled with anger. He said: "For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and mistrust of the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I would only say that I can also feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man." Kennedy's speech was credited with assisting in the prevention of post-assassination rioting in Indianapolis on a night when such events broke out in major cities across the country. It was ranked number 17 on a list of the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century, compiled by researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Texas A&M University, based on a nationwide survey of 137 scholars. Kennedy canceled all of his scheduled campaign appearances and withdrew to his hotel room. Several phone conversations with black community leaders convinced him to speak out against the violent backlash beginning to emerge across the country. The next day, Kennedy gave a prepared response, "On the Mindless Menace of Violence", in Cleveland, Ohio. Although still considered significant, it is given much less historical attention than his Indianapolis speech. President Lyndon B. Johnson President Lyndon B. Johnson was in the Oval Office that evening, planning a meeting in Hawaii with Vietnam War military commanders. After press secretary George Christian informed him at 8:20 p.m. of the assassination, he canceled the trip to focus on the nation. He assigned Attorney General Ramsey Clark to investigate the assassination in Memphis. He made a personal call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and declared April 7 a national day of mourning on which the U.S. flag would be flown at half-staff. Riots Colleagues of King in the civil rights movement called for a nonviolent response to the assassination to honor his most deeply held beliefs. James Farmer Jr. said: However, the more militant Stokely Carmichael called for forceful action, saying: Despite the urging for calm by many leaders, a nationwide wave of riots erupted in more than 100 cities. After the assassination, the city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on favorable terms to the sanitation workers. Reactions On April 8, King's widow Coretta Scott King and her four young children led a crowd estimated at 40,000 in a silent march through the streets of Memphis to honor King and support the cause of the city's black sanitation workers. In the wake of King's assassination, journalists reported some callous or hostile reactions from parts of white America, particularly in the South. David Halberstam, who reported on King's funeral, recounted a comment heard at an affluent white dinner party: Reporters recounted that many white people were also grief-stricken at the leader's death. In some cases, the shock of events altered opinions. A survey later sent to a group of college trustees revealed that their opinions of King had risen after his assassination. Public figures generally praised King in the days following his death. Others expressed political ideology. Governor George Wallace of Alabama, known as a segregationist, described the assassination as a "senseless, regrettable act", but Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia called King "an enemy of our country" and threatened to "personally raise" the state capitol flag back from half-staff. California Governor Ronald Reagan described the assassination as "a great tragedy that began when we began compromising with law and order and people started choosing which laws they'd break". South Carolina senator Strom Thurmond wrote to his constituents: "We are now witnessing the whirlwind sowed years ago when some preachers and teachers began telling people that each man could be his own judge in his own case." ==FBI investigation==

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). Many documents related to the investigation remain classified and are slated to remain secret until 2027. In 2010, as in earlier years, some argued for passage of a proposed Records Collection Act, similar to a 1992 law concerning the Kennedy assassination, to require the immediate release of the records. The measure did not pass. Initial investigation of James Earl Ray. First published by the office of Birmingham, Alabama, on April 17, 1968. By April 17, 1968, a description, as well as several composite sketches of the perpetrator, had been made. This description illustrated that the assassin of King was a 36- to 38-year-old Caucasian male, who was between 5'8" and 5'10" in height, 165 to 175 pounds in weight, and had medium, combed brown hair and blue eyes. On April 19, the FBI managed to match the fingerprints found on the rifle to a 40-year-old man named James Earl Ray, and the investigation began to focus on him. The anatomical diagnosis by Dr. Francisco stated that: It was further determined that King was struck on the right side of his face, about away from "below the angle of the mouth." The bullet entered through the right mandible, before it entered King's right pleural cavity, fractured his jawbone, and exited by the right side of the chin. The bullet then re-entered through the base of King's neck, continuing through the right supraclavicular fossa. ==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". ==Perpetrator==

Alleged activities The FBI investigation found fingerprints on various objects left in the bathroom from which the gunfire had come. Evidence included a Remington Gamemaster rifle from which at least one shot had been fired. The fingerprints were traced to an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. According to the FBI and the House Committee on Assassinations, Ray had escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary by use of a bakery truck on April 23, 1967, after serving 7 years in jail for robbery. On March 22 of the following year, Ray drove to Selma, Alabama, and began to stalk Dr. King. On March 29, Ray bought ammunition for a .243 caliber rifle in Bessemer, before buying a Remington Model 760 rifle from a gun dealer in Birmingham, Alabama, using the false name of Harvey Lowmeyer on March 30. On April 1, the SCLC announced that King would be participating in a march on April 8, and Ray drove 7 hours to Memphis on April 3. Then, using the name of Eric Galt, Ray registered into room 34 at the Rebel Motor Hotel. After its discovery at 6:30 p.m., this bundle was handed over to the FBI at 8:15. Ray and seven other convicts escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, on June 10, 1977. All eight escapees were recaptured on June 13 and returned to prison. A year was added to Ray's sentence. William Francis Pepper remained Ray's attorney until Ray's death. He carried on the effort to gain a trial on behalf of the King family, who did not believe Ray was responsible, claiming that there was a conspiracy by elements of the government against King. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70 from liver failure caused by hepatitis C, after being hospitalized more than 15 times, and falling into a coma on three occasions. ==Alleged government involvement==

In 1977, Ray fired Foreman and claimed that a man whom he had met in Montreal by the alias of "Raoul" was involved, as was Ray's brother Johnny, but that Ray himself was not. He said through his new attorney Jack Kershaw that, although he did not "personally shoot King", he may have been "partially responsible without knowing it." In May 1977, Kershaw presented evidence to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he believed exonerated his client, but tests did not prove conclusive. Kershaw also claimed that Ray was somewhere else when the shots were fired, but he could not find a witness to corroborate the claim. As early as August 1979, Jesse Jackson had been convinced that Ray was innocent, and wrote a foreword for Ray's book Who Killed Martin Luther King?: The True Story by the Alleged Assassin in 1991. It has stated that the evidence allegedly supporting the existence of "Raoul" is dubious. Coretta Scott King v. Loyd Jowers In 1997, King's son Dexter met with Ray and asked him, "I just want to ask you, for the record, um, did you kill my father?" Ray replied, "No. No I didn't," and King told Ray that he, along with the King family, believed him. The King family urged that Ray be granted a new trial. In 1999, the family filed a civil case against Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators for the wrongful death of King. The case, Coretta Scott King, et al. vs. Loyd Jowers et al., Case No. 97242, was tried in the circuit court of Shelby County, Tennessee from November 15 to December 8, 1999. Attorney William Francis Pepper, representing the King family, presented evidence from 70 witnesses and 4,000 pages of transcripts. Pepper alleges in his book An Act of State (2003) that the evidence implicated the FBI, the CIA, the U.S. Army, the Memphis Police Department, and organized crime in the murder. The suit alleged government involvement; however, no government officials or agencies were named or made party to the suit, so there was no defense or evidence presented or refuted by the government. The jury of six black people and six white people decided that King had been the victim of a conspiracy involving the Memphis police and federal agencies, finding Jowers and unknown co-defendants civilly liable and awarding the family $100. Local assistant district attorney John Campbell, who was not involved in the case, said that the case was flawed and "overlooked so much contradictory evidence that never was presented". The family said that it had requested only $100 in damages to demonstrate that it was not seeking financial gain. Dexter King called the verdict "a vindication for us". At a press conference following the trial, he and his mother Coretta Scott King told reporters that they believed the mafia and state, local, and federal government agencies had conspired to plan the assassination and frame Ray as the shooter. When asked whom the family believed was the true assassin, Dexter King said that Jowers had identified Lt. Earl Clark of the Memphis Police Department as the shooter. A sister of Jowers said that he had fabricated the story in order to earn $300,000 by selling it, and that she had corroborated the story to get money to pay her income taxes. King biographer David Garrow disagrees with Pepper's claims that the government killed King. He is supported by author Gerald Posner, who wrote Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998), concluding that Ray killed King, acting alone, likely for the hope of collecting a racist bounty for the murder. Critics of the official verdict on King's death bristled at Killing the Dream, criticizing Posner for, in part, basing it on "a psychological evaluation of James Earl Ray, which he [Posner] is not qualified to give, and he dismisses evidence of conspiracy in King's murder as cynical attempts to exploit the tragedy". Pepper repeatedly dismissed Posner's book as inaccurate and misleading, and Dexter King also criticized it. In response to the 1999 verdict in King vs. Jowers, Posner told The New York Times: "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it." Some witnesses with King at the moment of the shooting said that the shot had been fired from a different location and not from Ray's window; they believed that the source was a spot behind thick shrubbery near the rooming house. King's friend and SCLC organizer Reverend James Lawson has suggested that the impending occupation of Washington, D.C. by the Poor People's Campaign was a primary motive for the assassination. and had also been under surveillance by military intelligence agencies during the period leading up to his assassination under the code name Operation Lantern Spike. Minister Ronald Denton Wilson claimed that his father, Henry Clay Wilson, assassinated King. He stated: "It wasn't a racist thing; he thought Martin Luther King was connected with communism, and he wanted to get him out of the way." However, reportedly Wilson had previously admitted his father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In 2004, Jesse Jackson, who was with King when he was assassinated, noted: According to biographer Taylor Branch, King's friend and colleague James Bevel put it more bluntly: "There is no way a ten-cent white boy could develop a plan to kill a million-dollar black man." Executive order to release government records On January 23, 2025, president Donald Trump signed an executive order to declassify the documents regarding King's assassination, as well as those regarding the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. ==See also==