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On This Day: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated in Memphis
April 04, 2009 02:00 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
On April 4, 1968, a hidden gunman shot King, who was standing on a hotel balcony. James Earl Ray was convicted, but doubts remain.
Civil Rights Leader Slain
King was leaning over a railing to speak with Jesse Jackson, who was standing in the courtyard below.
Ralph Abernathy, another friend and civil rights leader, was stepping out of the room to join them when a single shot from 100 yards away hit King in the neck.
King collapsed and was taken to nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital, where emergency surgery failed to save his life.
"A man full of life, full of love, and he was shot," King adviser Chauncey Eskridge told the New York Times. "He had always lived with that expectation.”
King, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, had received “hundreds of death threats” during his life. His home was bombed, though his wife and children escaped injury. The FBI frequently tapped his phones.
Police arrested escaped convict James Earl Ray, who pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Ray later recanted and said he had been set up. Nonetheless, his confession was upheld eight times and he died in prison in 1998.
Some King family members agreed with Ray, charging that King was a victim of a government conspiracy designed to end the major anti-poverty reforms he had planned. In 1999, King's son Dexter brought a civil suit against Memphis restaurateur Loyd Jowers, winning a jury ruling that Jowers was part of a conspiracy to murder King.
But some reject the conspiracy theory.
Salon calls it “preposterous,” while author Gerald Posner says believers feel “it somehow gives even more meaning and power to [King’s] death.''
Ralph Abernathy, another friend and civil rights leader, was stepping out of the room to join them when a single shot from 100 yards away hit King in the neck.
King collapsed and was taken to nearby St. Joseph’s Hospital, where emergency surgery failed to save his life.
"A man full of life, full of love, and he was shot," King adviser Chauncey Eskridge told the New York Times. "He had always lived with that expectation.”
King, winner of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize, had received “hundreds of death threats” during his life. His home was bombed, though his wife and children escaped injury. The FBI frequently tapped his phones.
Police arrested escaped convict James Earl Ray, who pled guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.
Ray later recanted and said he had been set up. Nonetheless, his confession was upheld eight times and he died in prison in 1998.
Some King family members agreed with Ray, charging that King was a victim of a government conspiracy designed to end the major anti-poverty reforms he had planned. In 1999, King's son Dexter brought a civil suit against Memphis restaurateur Loyd Jowers, winning a jury ruling that Jowers was part of a conspiracy to murder King.
But some reject the conspiracy theory.
Salon calls it “preposterous,” while author Gerald Posner says believers feel “it somehow gives even more meaning and power to [King’s] death.''
Later Developments: Anti-poverty efforts, a possible presidential ticket and the conspiracy trial
According to a 1998 Newsweek article reprinted in the Washington Post, King was troubled around the time of his murder, as he sought a way to address pervasive U.S. poverty. He “had been depressed, sleeping little and suffering from migraines … His plans for a massive Poor People’s Campaign were in disarray.” The article discusses the King family’s struggles to gain a sense of closure after his murder, saying King had been “growing more radical––and that, his family says, is why he was killed.” If King had lived, there might have been a Robert Kennedy-MLK presidential ticket, the article reports.
In December, 1999, a U.S. civil jury ruled that King had been the victim of a murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin. The ruling was the result of a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the King family against retired Memphis businessman Loyd Jowers.
In December, 1999, a U.S. civil jury ruled that King had been the victim of a murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin. The ruling was the result of a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the King family against retired Memphis businessman Loyd Jowers.
Opinion & Analysis: The conspiracy theory
William Pepper investigated the King assassination for years before becoming his family’s lawyer in the successful civil trial against Loyd Jowers. Pepper details the conspiracy and the case in his book “An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King.”
Reference: Documenting the civil rights leader’s life
Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute has various resources that offer insight into King’s life, including an encyclopedia of people and events he was involved with, public programs about his life, and the “King Papers Project,” whose mission is to publish King’s “most significant correspondence, sermons, speeches, published writings, and unpublished manuscripts.” The Institute also provides popular documents and audio clips, including the full "I Have a Dream Speech" that King delivered on Aug. 28, 1963 in Washington, D.C.
The Seattle Times provides a slide show of photographs of King’s life, a biography, and links to additional stories related to his legacy, including his wife Coretta Scott King’s death.
The Seattle Times provides a slide show of photographs of King’s life, a biography, and links to additional stories related to his legacy, including his wife Coretta Scott King’s death.
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