1968
THE ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
In the months before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King became increasingly concerned with the problem of economic inequality in America. He organized a Poor People’s Campaign to focus on the issue, including a march on Washington, and in March 1968 traveled to Memphis in support of poorly treated Black sanitation workers. On March 28, a workers’ protest march led by King ended in violence and the death of a Black teenager. King left the city but vowed to return in early April to lead another demonstration.
On April 3, back in Memphis, Dr. King gave his last sermon, saying, “We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop … And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and 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.”
One day after speaking those words, Dr. King was shot and killed by a sniper at the Lorraine Motel. As word of the assassination spread, riots broke out in cities all across the United States, and National Guard troops were deployed in Memphis and Washington, D.C.
A single memorial would not be enough for the man who had been the face of a movement. The first memorial service following his assassination took place the following day at the R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. This was followed by two funeral services on April 9, 1968, in Atlanta, Georgia, the first held for family and close friends at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King and his father had both served as senior pastors. That service was followed by a three-mile procession to Morehouse College, King’s alma mater, for a public service. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets to pay tribute as his casket passed by in a wooden farm cart drawn by two mules.
President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader on April 7, to be observed on the third Monday of January of each year.
Sources
History.com – Dr King is Assassinated
