Today in Black History, April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most influential figures in American history. As the face of the civil rights movement, his leadership and commitment to nonviolent protest reshaped the national dialogue around race, equality, and justice. His assassination on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, shocked the nation and the world. It marked not only the loss of a great leader but also a turning point in the American civil rights movement. The story of King’s death is a complex one, involving a troubled assassin, a contentious investigation, and a legacy that continues to resonate today.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, into a deeply religious family. His father, Martin Luther King Sr., was a Baptist minister, and King followed in his footsteps, attending Morehouse College, Crozer Theological Seminary, and ultimately earning a doctorate in systematic theology from Boston University.
Inspired by the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi and the theology of nonviolence, King emerged as a powerful orator and leader during the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, sparked by Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus. The boycott led to the desegregation of Montgomery’s public transit system and propelled King to national prominence.
Over the next decade, King became a central figure in the civil rights movement. He led marches, sit-ins, and protests across the American South. He was instrumental in organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where he delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to combat racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
Despite numerous arrests, death threats, and surveillance by the FBI, King continued his work tirelessly. In the late 1960s, he began to focus increasingly on issues of poverty and economic justice, launching the Poor People’s Campaign. It was during this time that he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support a strike by African American sanitation workers. This trip would be his last.
The Road to Memphis
In early 1968, sanitation workers in Memphis began a strike in protest of dangerous working conditions, low pay, and systemic racial discrimination. Two black workers had been killed in a malfunctioning garbage truck, and the city had refused to properly address the issue. King saw the strike as emblematic of the broader economic injustices faced by black Americans and decided to lend his support.
He arrived in Memphis on March 18, 1968, and delivered a speech to a crowd of over 15,000 people, urging them to continue their nonviolent protests. On March 28, King led a march through downtown Memphis, but the demonstration turned violent when some participants began looting and breaking windows. This was deeply troubling to King, who was committed to nonviolence. He resolved to return to Memphis to lead a peaceful, well-organized march.
On April 3, King gave what would become one of his most famous speeches, the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address, at the Mason Temple. In it, he seemed to foreshadow his own death, saying, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life… But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will… I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you…”
The following day, April 4, 1968, would be his last.
On the evening of April 4, 1968, Dr. King was staying at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. At around 6:01 p.m., he stepped out onto the balcony of his second-floor room, number 306. He was talking with friends and aides, including the Reverend Jesse Jackson and musician Ben Branch, when a single shot rang out.
The bullet struck King in the lower right side of his face, breaking his jaw and severing major arteries. He collapsed instantly. His companions rushed to his aid as chaos erupted around them. King was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, but the wound was too severe. At 7:05 p.m., he was pronounced dead.
The news of King’s assassination spread rapidly across the United States. In cities across the country, grief turned to outrage. Riots broke out in more than 100 cities, including Washington D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore. Thousands of National Guard troops were deployed. The United States was thrown into one of the most tumultuous periods of civil unrest in its history.
The assassin fled the scene before anyone could identify him. A massive manhunt was launched by local and federal authorities. Investigators quickly found a bundle of items left behind at a nearby rooming house, including a rifle with fingerprints, binoculars, and a map of the area. The rifle, a Remington .30-06, was traced to a man named James Earl Ray.
Ray, a 40-year-old white man with a long criminal history, had escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967, a year before King’s assassination. He had used multiple aliases while traveling across the U.S., Canada, and even Europe. After King’s murder, Ray fled the country, traveling to Canada, then to London, England, where he planned to fly to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which at the time had a white minority regime that Ray believed would be sympathetic to him.
However, on June 8, 1968, two months after the assassination, Ray was arrested at Heathrow Airport in London while trying to board a flight to Brussels. He was extradited to the United States and charged with King’s murder.
On March 10, 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. in order to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Just days later, however, Ray recanted his confession, claiming that he had been coerced into pleading guilty and that he had not acted alone.
Ray alleged that he was part of a conspiracy and that a mysterious figure named “Raoul” had manipulated him into the assassination. Over the next three decades, Ray and his legal team, supported at times by King’s own family members, pushed for a new trial. They argued that Ray was a patsy and that the real assassins were part of a broader government or organized crime conspiracy.
The U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations conducted an investigation from 1976 to 1979. The committee concluded that Ray had fired the shot that killed King but stated that there was a “likelihood” of a conspiracy, though they could not conclusively prove who else might have been involved.
Despite the official findings, speculation about the true nature of the assassination has never been fully resolved.
In an unusual and poignant twist, members of the King family expressed doubt that James Earl Ray was the true assassin. In 1997, Coretta Scott King, along with her children, publicly supported Ray’s request for a new trial. In 1999, the King family participated in a civil trial in Memphis, in which they sued a man named Loyd Jowers, who had claimed in the 1990s that he had been part of a conspiracy to kill King, involving government agencies and organized crime figures.
The jury in that civil case ruled in favor of the King family, concluding that Jowers and “others, including government agencies” had conspired to kill King. However, the trial was not a criminal proceeding, and its findings were not legally binding for law enforcement. The U.S. Department of Justice conducted a review of the case and found no credible evidence of a conspiracy.
The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had an immediate and profound impact on the United States. President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning and urged the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968, also known as the Fair Housing Act. The law, signed just days after King’s death, prohibited discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing—a cause King had championed.
King’s funeral was held on April 9, 1968, in Atlanta. More than 100,000 people attended the procession. His body was carried on a simple wooden cart pulled by mules, symbolizing his deep connection to the poor and disenfranchised. The service was filled with speeches, hymns, and a sense of both mourning and resolve.
In the years that followed, King’s legacy was honored with streets, schools, and monuments named after him. His birthday was declared a national holiday in 1983, and he remains one of the few Americans honored with a memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
Legacy and Enduring Questions
Dr. King’s assassination did not mark the end of the civil rights movement, but it did signal a shift. Without his leadership, the movement became more fragmented. The rise of Black Power and more militant groups marked a departure from King’s philosophy of nonviolence. Still, his ideas and moral clarity continued to inspire generations.
The questions surrounding his death, however, have never fully been answered to everyone’s satisfaction. Was James Earl Ray a lone gunman, or was he a pawn in a larger plot? Did the FBI, which had long targeted King through surveillance and harassment, have a role in his death? Was there a cover-up? These questions continue to fuel books, documentaries, and debates.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was a tragedy that altered the course of American history. While his physical presence was silenced, his voice, vision, and values have endured. His death raised critical questions about justice, power, and the soul of the nation—questions that remain relevant to this day.
King’s dream of a just, equitable, and loving society did not die with him on that Memphis balcony. Instead, it lives on in the movements, policies, and people who continue to fight for the ideals he espoused. In life, he challenged a nation to be better. In death, he became a martyr for a cause that still seeks fulfillment. The struggle continues, but so does the dream.
