Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
On April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST, Martin Luther King Jr., an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at age 39.
The alleged assassin, James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London's Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful, before he died in 1998.
The King family and others believe that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, the mafia, and Memphis police, as alleged by Loyd Jowers in 1993. They believe that Ray was a scapegoat. In 1999, the family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers for the sum of $10 million. During the trial, both sides presented evidence alleging a government conspiracy. The accused government agencies could not defend themselves or respond because they were not named as defendants. Based on the evidence, the jury concluded that Jowers and others were "part of a conspiracy to kill King" and awarded the family the symbolic $100 they requested in damages. The allegations and the finding of the Memphis jury were later disputed by the United States Department of Justice in 2000 due to a perceived lack of evidence.
The assassination was one of four major assassinations of the 1960s in the United States, coming several years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and the assassination of Malcolm X in 1965, and two months before the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968.
Background
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.These unethical conditions were imposed by mayor Henry Loeb, and during his tenure, conditions did not significantly improve. This, along with the deaths of two workers in a garbage-compacting truck on February 1, 1968, caused laborers to conspire to stage a protest on February 11, 1968. The strike took place the following day, and lasted for over two months.
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. On March 28, Dr. King and Reverend Ralph Abernathy, a colleague and friend of his, then began this peaceful march at the Clayborn Temple. 6,000 people participated in this march, but it would end in violence.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. King then checked into room 306 at the Lorraine Motel at about 11:20 a.m., before leaving shortly past 12 p.m. to go to a meeting, announcing that he would head another march on April 5.
By that time, tornado warnings had been reported that afternoon, and heavy rainfall hit the city by that night. Despite the weather, King managed to arrive in time to make a planned speech to a gathering at the Mason Temple, where around 2,000 people were waiting for him.
"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
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 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
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.
Additionally, photographer Joseph Louw, who was waiting to cover the next part of King's campaign, was staying at room 309 on the day of the assassination. 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.
Immediate aftermath
About two minutes after the shooting occurred, it was radioed to police, who were stationed across the street. At 6:09 p.m., King was lifted onto a stretcher, and placed into an ambulance, being escorted by several police officers on motorcycles. At about 6:15 p.m., King arrived in Room 1 of St. Joseph's Hospital, still unconscious, but alive.After arriving at St. Joseph's, Ted Gaylon was the first to examine King's condition and soon determined that King was still alive. However, Gaylon found that King only had a weak pulse and his breathing pattern was irregular. Despite the large wounds on his face and neck, he was not bleeding excessively, likely because of hypovolemic shock. Surgeons John Reisser and Rufus Brown soon joined the attempt to save King's life, and managed his airway by 6:18 p.m.
By 6:22 p.m., Jerome Barrasso joined to help with a tracheostomy, before taking over the resuscitation attempt at 6:30 p.m. alongside neurosurgeon Fredrick Gioia. Fifteen minutes later, King's blood pressure became undetectable, and the electrocardiogram showed an agonal rhythm. After consulting Joe Wilhite and Julian Fleming, it was determined that King showed "no signs of life." Several more attempts to save King's life were made, but his electrocardiogram flatlined and his pupils became fixed. Barrasso pronounced King dead at 7:05 p.m.