Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

1968 murder in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.

For conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination, see Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories.

Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Part of the civil rights movement

Lorraine Motel in 2022. The wreath marks King's approximate location at the time of his assassination.

Location| Lorraine Motel
Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Coordinates| 35°08′04″N 90°03′27″W﻿ / ﻿35.1345°N 90.0576°W﻿ / 35.1345; -90.0576
Date| April 4, 1968; 56 years ago (1968-04-04)
6:01 p.m. (CST (UTC–6))
Target| Martin Luther King Jr.

Attack type

| Sniper assassination
Weapons| Remington 760 Gamemaster .30-06
Victim| Martin Luther King Jr.
Perpetrators| Disputed

* James Earl Ray according to a criminal case
* Loyd Jowers and "others, including unspecified governmental agencies" according to a later civil case

Convictions| Ray: First-degree murder

Sentence| 99 years imprisonment

* v
* t
* e

Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee

City of Clinton

* McSwain v. Co. Board of Ed. of Anderson Co., Tenn.
* Clinton High School desegregation crisis
* Clinton High School bombing

City of Memphis

* Memphis sit-ins
* Watson v. City of Memphis
* Memphis sanitation strike
* Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

City of Nashville

* Kelly v. Board of Education
* Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing
* Nashville sit-ins
* Nashville Student Movement
* Z. Alexander Looby residence bombing

Other localities

* Tent City
* Chattanooga sit-ins
* Knoxville sit-ins

|  |

This article is part of
a series about

Martin Luther King Jr.

|

* Biography
* Sermons and speeches

* * *

Campaigns

* Montgomery bus boycott
* Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* Youth March for Integrated Schools
* Albany Movement
* Birmingham campaign
* Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom
* St. Augustine movement
* Selma to Montgomery marches
* Chicago Open Housing Movement
* March Against Fear
* Memphis sanitation strike
* Poor People's Campaign

* * *

Death and memorial

* Assassination
* Funeral
* American federal holiday
* passage
* National memorial
* National Historical Park

* * *

* v
* t
* e

Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights movement leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m at age 39. He was a prominent leader of the civil rights movement and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience. James Earl Ray, a fugitive 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, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary.[1] He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful. Ray died in prison in 1998.[2]

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 closing arguments, their attorney asked the jury to award damages of $100, to make the point that "it was not about the money". 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.[3][4] The allegations and the finding of the Memphis jury were later disputed by the United States Department of Justice in 2000 due to perceived lack of evidence.[5]

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.[6]

## Background

[edit]

### Death threats

[edit]

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 stop 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."[7][8]

### Memphis

[edit]

Main article: Memphis sanitation strike

King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of striking African-American city sanitation workers. The workers had staged a walkout on February 11, 1968, to protest unequal wages and working conditions imposed by mayor Henry Loeb. At the time, Memphis paid black workers significantly lower wages than it did white workers. There were no city-issued uniforms, no restrooms, no recognized union, and no grievance procedure for the numerous occasions on which they were underpaid. During Loeb's tenure as mayor, conditions did not significantly improve, and the gruesome February 1968 deaths of two workers in a garbage-compacting truck turned mounting tensions into a strike.[9]

The Safe House Black History Museum where King sheltered in 1968 two weeks before the assassination.

In March 1968, after speaking in Greensboro, Alabama, King was hunted by Ku Klux Klan members and used a local home, now the Safe House Museum, as a safe house before travelling to Memphis.[10]

King participated in a massive march in Memphis on March 28, 1968, which ended in violence.[9] On April 3, King returned to Memphis to attempt a successful new march later that week. His airline flight to Memphis was delayed by a bomb threat, but he arrived in time to make a planned speech to a gathering at the Mason Temple (world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ).[11][12][13]

At the Mason Temple, King delivered his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech. In it, 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.[14] 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:

> I, too, am happy that I didn't sneeze. Because if I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting-in at lunch counters. If I had sneezed, I wouldn't have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel.[14]

King repeated the phrase "If I had sneezed" several more times, recalling numerous other events and acts of civil disobedience from the previous several years: the Albany Movement (1962), the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and the Selma to Montgomery March (1965).[15]

As he neared the close, he prophetically referred to the bomb threat:

> And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats ... or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers? Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. 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! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord![16]

## Assassination

[edit]

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, King was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel was owned by a businessman, Walter Bailey, and was named after his wife. The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, a colleague and friend, later told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he and King had stayed in Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel so often that it was known as the "King–Abernathy Suite".[17]

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."[18]

According to the Rev. Samuel Kyles, who was standing several feet away, King was leaning over the balcony railing in front of Room 306 and was speaking with the Rev. Jesse Jackson when the shot rang out.[19] King was struck in the face at 6:01 p.m. by a single .30-06 bullet, fired from a Remington Model 760 rifle.[20] The bullet entered through King's right cheek, breaking his jaw and several vertebrae as it traveled down his spinal cord, severing his jugular vein and major arteries, before lodging in his shoulder. The force of the shot ripped King's necktie off. King fell backward onto the balcony, unconscious.[21]

Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the deck, bleeding profusely from the wound in his cheek.[20][22] Jesse Jackson stated after the shooting that he cradled King's head as King lay on the balcony, but this account was disputed by other colleagues of King; Jackson later changed his statement to say that he had "reached out" for King.[23] Andrew Young, a colleague from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, first believed King was dead, but found he still had a pulse.[24]

External videos

Martin Luther King Jr. death announcement by Walter Cronkite, CBS News Special Report, April 4, 1968, C-SPAN

King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where doctors opened his chest and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He never regained consciousness, and died at 7:05 p.m.[25] According to Branch, King's autopsy revealed that his heart was in the condition of a 60-year-old man rather than that of a 39-year-old such as King, which Branch attributed to the stress of King's 13 years in the civil rights movement.[26]

Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man, later believed to be James Earl Ray, fleeing from a rooming-house across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Ray had been renting a room in the rooming-house. Police found a package dumped close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both bearing Ray's fingerprints.[27] Ray had purchased the rifle under an alias six days earlier.[28] A worldwide manhunt was triggered that culminated in Ray's arrest at Heathrow Airport, London, two months later.[29] On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Martin Luther King Jr.; he later recanted.[28][30]

* The former "New Rebel Motel" where James Earl Ray stayed before shooting King

* Wide view of the Lorraine Motel and the boarding house from which James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot from a second-floor bathroom window (to the left of the light pole)

* Close-up of where King was shot

* View of the Lorraine Motel from window where James Earl Ray fired at King

* The former boarding house room from which Ray is believed to have fired

## Responses

[edit]

### Coretta Scott King

[edit]

King's widow, Coretta, had difficulty informing her children that their father was dead. She received a large number of telegrams, including one from Lee Harvey Oswald's mother that she regarded as the one that had touched her the most.[31]

### Within the movement

[edit]

Demonstrator with sign saying "Let his death not be in vain", in front of the White House, after the assassination of Martin Luther King

For some, King's assassination meant the end of the strategy of nonviolence.[32] 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.[33] Some black leaders argued the need to continue King's and the movement's tradition of nonviolence.[34]

### Robert F. Kennedy speech

[edit]

Main article: Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

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.[35] 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.[citation needed]

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.[36] 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.[37] The Indianapolis chief of police advised Kennedy that he could not provide him protection and was worried that he would be at risk when talking about King's death before the predominantly black crowd.[38] However, Kennedy decided to proceed. Standing on a flatbed truck, he spoke for four minutes and 57 seconds.[39]

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.[40] 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." These remarks surprised his aides, who had never heard him speak publicly of his brother's death.[41] Kennedy said that the country had to make an effort to "go beyond these rather difficult times" and quoted a poem by the Greek playwright Aeschylus: "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." In conclusion, he said that the country needed and wanted unity between blacks and whites, and asked the audience members to pray for the King family and the country, again quoting the Greeks.[citation needed]

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.[42] It is widely considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.[43]

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.[44] 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 is the Indianapolis speech.[45]

### President Lyndon B. Johnson

[edit]

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.[46]

### Riots

[edit]

Main article: King assassination riots

Destruction after the 1968 Washington, D.C., 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:

> Dr. King would be greatly distressed to find that his blood had triggered off bloodshed and disorder. I think instead the nation should be quiet; black and white, and we should be in a prayerful mood, which would be in keeping with his life. We should make that kind of dedication and commitment to the goals which his life served to solving the domestic problems. That's the memorial, that's the kind of memorial we should build for him. It's just not appropriate for there to be violent retaliations, and that kind of demonstration in the wake of the murder of this pacifist and man of peace.[47]

However, the more militant Stokely Carmichael called for forceful action, saying:

> White America killed Dr. King last night. She made it a whole lot easier for a whole lot of black people today. There no longer needs to be intellectual discussions, black people know that they have to get guns. White America will live to cry that she killed Dr. King last night. It would have been better if she had killed Rap Brown and/or Stokely Carmichael, but when she killed Dr. King, she lost.[47]

Despite the urging for calm by many leaders, a nationwide wave of riots erupted in more than 100 cities.[48] After the assassination, the city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on favorable terms to the sanitation workers.[49][50]

### Reactions

[edit]

Garment workers listen to King's funeral service on a portable radio (April 9, 1968)

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.[51]

The next day, funeral rites were held in King's hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The service at Ebenezer Baptist Church was nationally televised, as were other events. A funeral procession transported King's body for 3+1⁄2 miles (5.6 km) through the streets of Atlanta, followed by more than 100,000 mourners, from the church to his alma mater, Morehouse College. A second service was held there before the burial.[51]

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:

> One of the wives—station wagon, three children, forty-five-thousand-dollar house—leaned over and said, "I wish you had spit in his face for me." It was a stunning moment; I wondered for a long time afterwards what King could possibly have done to her, in what conceivable way he could have threatened her, why this passionate hate.[7]

Reporters recounted that many whites 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.[7] The New York Times praised King in an editorial, calling his murder a "national disaster" and his cause "just".[52][53]

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".[32] 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."[54]

## FBI investigation

[edit]

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).[46] Many documents related to the investigation remain classified and are slated to remain secret until 2027.[55][56] 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.[57] The measure did not pass.[citation needed]

## Funeral

[edit]

Main article: Funeral of Martin Luther King Jr.

A crowd of 300,000 attended King's funeral on April 9.[46] 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".[58]

## Perpetrator

[edit]

Main article: James Earl Ray

### Capture and guilty plea

[edit]

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.[59] Two months after assassinating King, Ray was captured at London's Heathrow Airport while he was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe) or South Africa[60] on a false Canadian passport in the name of Ramon George Sneyd.[61] Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder.[citation needed]

Ray confessed to the assassination on March 10, 1969. On the advice of his attorney Percy Foreman, Ray took a guilty plea to avoid a conviction and potential death penalty. Ray was sentenced to a 99-year prison term, but he recanted his confession three days later.[30]

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", hinting at a conspiracy. 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.[62]

### Escape

[edit]

Ray and seven other convicts escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee on June 10, 1977. They were recaptured on June 13 and returned to prison.[63] A year was added to Ray's sentence.[citation needed]

Ray worked for the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a full trial. In 1997, King's son Dexter met with Ray; he publicly supported Ray's efforts to obtain a retrial.[64]

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 do not believe Ray was responsible, claiming that there was a conspiracy by elements of the government against King.[65]

### Death

[edit]

Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70 from liver failure caused by hepatitis C. It was not conclusively determined how Ray contracted the viral infection.[66]

## Alleged government involvement

[edit]

Main article: Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories

### Loyd Jowers

[edit]

In December 1993, Loyd Jowers, a white man from Memphis with business interests in the vicinity of the assassination site, appeared on ABC's Prime Time Live. He had gained attention by claiming that he had conspired with the mafia and the federal government to kill King. According to Jowers, Ray was a scapegoat and was not directly involved in the shooting. Jowers claimed that he had hired someone to kill King as a favor for a friend in the mafia, Frank Liberto, a produce merchant who died before 1993.[citation needed]

According to the Department of Justice, Jowers had inconsistently identified different people as King's assassin since 1993. He had alternatively claimed the shooter was: (1) an African-American man who was on South Main Street on the night of the assassination (the "Man on South Main Street"); (2) "Raoul"; (3) a white "Lieutenant" with the Memphis Police Department; and (4) a person whom he did not recognize. The Department of Justice does not consider Jowers' accusations credible and refers to two of the accused individuals by pseudonym.[note 1] It has stated that the evidence allegedly supporting the existence of "Raoul" is dubious.[67]

#### Coretta Scott King v. Loyd Jowers

[edit]

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.[68][69][70] 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.[citation needed]

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.[71] 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.[3] The jury of six blacks and six whites 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.[72]

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".[4] This civil verdict against Jowers has been claimed by some to have established Ray's criminal innocence, which the King family has always maintained, but it has no bearing on his guilty plea. In the United States, civil and criminal trials are always adjudicated independently.[73][74][75] 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".[76] 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.[77] 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.[77]

#### Counter evidence

[edit]

The tomb of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King, located on the grounds of the King Center in Atlanta

In 2000, the Department of Justice completed its investigation into Jowers' claims, citing no evidence to support the conspiracy allegations. The investigation report recommended no further investigation unless new reliable facts were to be presented.[78] 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.[79][80] King biographer David Garrow disagrees with Pepper's claims that the government killed King. He is supported by author Gerald Posner,[81] 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.[82]

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".[83] Pepper repeatedly dismissed Posner's book as inaccurate and misleading, and Dexter King also criticized it.[71] 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."[76]

### Other theories

[edit]

In 1998, CBS reported that two separate ballistic tests conducted on the Remington Gamemaster allegedly used by Ray in the assassination were inconclusive.[84][85] 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.[86]

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.[3] Lawson also noted during the civil trial that King alienated President Johnson and other powerful government actors when he repudiated the Vietnam War on April 4, 1967—exactly one year before the assassination.[73]

Some evidence has suggested that King had been targeted by COINTELPRO[87] 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.[88]

Minister Ronald Denton Wilson claimed that his father, Henry Clay Wilson, assassinated King.[89] 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.[90]

In 2004, Jesse Jackson, who was with King when he was assassinated, noted:

> The fact is there were saboteurs to disrupt the march. [And] within our own organization, we found a very key person who was on the government payroll. So infiltration within, saboteurs from without and the press attacks. I will never believe that James Earl Ray had the motive, the money and the mobility to have done it himself. Our government was very involved in setting the stage for and I think the escape route for James Earl Ray.[91]

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."[92]

## See also

[edit]

* Assassination of Malcolm X
* "I've Been to the Mountaintop"
* Post–civil rights era in African-American history

## References

[edit]

### Explanatory notes

[edit]

1. ^ Because [the Department of Justice] does not credit Jowers' inconsistent allegations, we refer to the two assassins he has named as the "Man on South Main Street" and the "Lieutenant", respectively.

### Citations

[edit]

1. ^ Pepper 2003, p. 8.
2. ^ Pepper 2003, p. 97.
3. ^ a b c Douglass, Jim (Spring 2000). "The Martin Luther King Conspiracy Exposed in Memphis". Probe Magazine. Archived from the original on September 14, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
4. ^ a b Yellin, Emily (December 9, 1999). "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2013.
5. ^ "Overview". United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. U.S. Department of Justice. June 2000. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved July 11, 2011.
6. ^ Shahid M. Shahidullah, Crime Policy in America: Laws, Institutions, and Programs (2015), p. 94.
7. ^ a b c Dyson, Michael Eric (2008). "Fighting Death". April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr.'s death and how it changed America (1st ed.). New York City: Basic Civitas Books. ISBN 978-0465002122.
8. ^ (via Google News) "King had predicted he too would be killed". The Washington Afro American. Washington, D.C.: Baltimore Afro-American. September 9, 1969. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
9. ^ a b "The Accident on a Garbage Truck That Led to the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr". Southern Hollows podcast. Archived from the original on June 26, 2018. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
10. ^ Felton, Emmanuel (October 4, 2021). "Alabama spends more than a half-million dollars a year on a Confederate memorial. Black historical sites struggle to keep their doors open". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on June 25, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
11. ^ "Time Looks Back: The Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr". Time. April 4, 2013. Archived from the original on March 2, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
12. ^ Norman, Tony (April 4, 2008). "The last sermon, Memphis, April 3, 1968". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
13. ^ Rosenberg, Jennifer. "Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated". 20th Century History. About.com. Archived from the original on February 20, 2017. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
14. ^ a b Alexandra S. Levine, "New York Today: If Martin Luther King Had Sneezed", New York Times, January 12, 2017. Accessed August 11, 2018.
15. ^ The King Encyclopedia, "I've Been to the Mountaintop Archived August 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine", The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute (Stanford). Accessed August 11, 2018.
16. ^ "I've Been to the Mountaintop" Archived February 16, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
17. ^ "United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr – VII. King V. Jowers Conspiracy Allegations". United States Department of Justice. June 2000. Archived from the original on July 15, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
18. ^ Branch 2007, p. 766.
19. ^ Mar 29th 2007 – 12am, WCT Newsroom | (March 29, 2007). "Speech from reverend offers students in Granite a firsthand look at civil rights movement". West Central Tribune. Archived from the original on July 7, 2020. Retrieved July 7, 2020. `{{cite web}}`: `|first=` has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
20. ^ a b Gribben, Mark. "James Earl Ray: The Man Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King". trutv.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2012. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
21. ^ "Investigation of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Appendix to Hearings before the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Volume XIII (Scientific Reports and Supplementary Staff Reports). March 1979". www.maryferrell.org. March 1979. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved January 18, 2019.
22. ^ "Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr". Christian History Institute. March 2007. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved July 21, 2007.
23. ^ Purnick, Joyce (April 18, 1988). "Koch Says Jackson Lied About Actions After Dr. King Was Slain". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
24. ^ "Interview with Andrew Young". PBS. Archived from the original on July 27, 2018. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
25. ^ Lokos, Lionel (1968). House Divided: The Life and Legacy of Martin Luther King. Arlington House. p. 48.
26. ^ "Citizen King'". American Experience. PBS. Archived from the original on June 4, 2020. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
27. ^ "Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr". The Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute. April 24, 2017. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
28. ^ a b "Findings on MLK Assassination". National Archives. August 15, 2016. Archived from the original on December 3, 2017. Retrieved July 15, 2020.
29. ^ "Martin Luther King, Jr.: Assassination Conspiracy Theories". Archived from the original on December 26, 2016. Retrieved May 17, 2011.
30. ^ a b Jerome, Richard (May 11, 1998). "Dead Silence". People. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
31. ^ Clarke 2007, p. 124.
32. ^ a b Schumach, Murray (April 5, 1968). "Martin Luther King Jr.: Leader of Millions in Nonviolent Drive for Racial Justice". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 13, 2018. Retrieved October 19, 2016.
33. ^ "Aide to Dr. King Asserts March Of Poor in Capital Will Be Held". The New York Times. April 5, 1968. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
34. ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence (April 5, 1968). "Negroes Urge Others to Carry on Spirit of Nonviolence". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
35. ^ Klein 2006, p. 2.
36. ^ Klein 2006, p. 3.
37. ^ Klein 2006, pp. 3–4.
38. ^ Scarborough Country Archived October 25, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
39. ^ Klein 2006, pp. 1, 4.
40. ^ Klein, Joe (April 9, 2006a). "Pssst! Who's behind the decline of politics? Consultants". Time. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved November 17, 2007.
41. ^ Klein 2006, p. 6.
42. ^ Statement of Mayor Bart Peterson Archived November 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine April 4, 2006, press release
43. ^ "Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th Century". Archived from the original on September 26, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
44. ^ Newfield 1988, p. 248.
45. ^ Duffy & Leeman 2005, p. 245.
46. ^ a b c Kotz 2006, p. 415.
47. ^ a b "News, Photos, Audio - Archives - UPI.com". Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved August 31, 2010.
48. ^ "1968: Martin Luther King shot dead". BBC News. 2006. Archived from the original on March 11, 2019. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
49. ^ "AFSCME Wins in Memphis". AFSCME. Washington, D.C.: AFL–CIO. April 1, 1968. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
50. ^ "1968 Memphis Sanitation Workers' Strike Chronology". AFSCME. Washington, D.C.: AFL–CIO. 1968. Archived from the original on December 6, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
51. ^ a b "Dr. King's Assassination: Background" Archived February 14, 2015, at the Wayback Machine, Civil Rights Digital Library, Digital Library of Georgia, 2013
52. ^ "The Need of All Humanity". The New York Times. April 5, 1968.
53. ^ Catalyst (November 8, 2005). "White America's reaction to the shooting of MLK?". Straight Dope. Archived from the original on October 4, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
54. ^ Perlstein 2009, p. 257.
55. ^ "FBI File on Martin Luther King". library.truman.edu. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
56. ^ Strauss, Mark (August 2010). "Eight Historical Archives That Will Spill New Secrets". Smithsonian. Archived from the original on April 8, 2023. Retrieved February 17, 2019.
57. ^ "King's FBI files may be opened to public view". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
58. ^ Farmer, Paul (January 9, 2014). "The Drum Major Instinct: A Reflection on Martin Luther King Day". Partners In Health. Archived from the original on May 17, 2022. Retrieved April 18, 2022.
59. ^ Polk, James (December 29, 2008). "The case against James Earl Ray". CNN. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System (Time Warner). Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
60. ^ Clarke 2007, p. 296.
61. ^ Borrell 1968, p. 2.
62. ^ Martin, Douglas (September 24, 2010). "Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2019. Retrieved September 25, 2010.
63. ^ FIELD OFFICE ESTABLISHED Archived May 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Knoxville Field Office, FBI.
64. ^ "James Earl Ray, convicted King assassin, dies". CNN. Atlanta: Turner Broadcasting System(Time Warner). April 23, 1998. Archived from the original on October 29, 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
65. ^ KING FAMILY STATEMENT ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT "LIMITED INVESTIGATION" OF THE MLK ASSASSINATION Archived September 14, 2012, at the Wayback Machine The King Center
66. ^ "Autopsy: Ray's Death by Liver Failure". Tulsa World. April 25, 1998. Archived from the original on August 8, 2023. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
67. ^ "United States Department of Justice Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr" Archived January 13, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. June 2000. Civil Rights Division.
68. ^ John Ray (brother of James Earl) on Fox on YouTube
69. ^ Today in History March 27 on YouTube
70. ^ Sack, Kevin (March 28, 1997). "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 2, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
71. ^ a b Pepper 2003, p. [page needed].
72. ^ "Civil Case: King Family versus Jowers" Archived April 25, 2018, at the Wayback Machine (Partial Transcripts of Trial), hosted by The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia. Accessed January 20, 2014.
73. ^ a b "Trial Transcript Volume XIV". verdict. The King Center. 2006. Archived from the original on March 17, 2007. Retrieved March 24, 2007.
74. ^ Kevin Sack and Emily Yellin (December 10, 1999). "Dr. King's Slaying Finally Draws A Jury Verdict, but to Little Effect". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 26, 2013. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
75. ^ Pepper, Bill (April 7, 2002). "William F. Pepper on the MLK Conspiracy Trial" (PDF). Rat Haus Reality Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2006. Retrieved September 17, 2006.
76. ^ a b Yellin, Emily (December 9, 1999). "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing". The New York Times. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
77. ^ a b "Assassination Conspiracy Trial". The King Center. December 9, 1999. Archived from the original on March 31, 2018. Retrieved March 30, 2018.
78. ^ "USDOJ Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr". Conclusion and Recommendation. USDOJ. June 2000. Archived from the original on January 13, 2013. Retrieved February 16, 2013.
79. ^ "Martin Luther King Jr.: The Legacy". The Washington Post. January 30, 1999. Archived from the original on November 11, 2012. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
80. ^ "Loyd Jowers, 73, Who Claimed A Role in the Killing of Dr. King". The New York Times. May 23, 2000. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2017.
81. ^ Ayton, Mel (February 28, 2005). "Book review A Racial Crime: The Assassination of MLK". History News Network. Archived from the original on April 20, 2006. Retrieved September 18, 2006.
82. ^ Bernsteain, Richard (April 22, 1998). "'Killing the Dream': Ray Was King's Lone Assassin". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved December 14, 2014.
83. ^ "Martin Luther King". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved October 6, 2016.
84. ^ "James Earl Ray Dead At 70". CBS. April 23, 1998. Archived from the original on December 12, 2006. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
85. ^ "Questions left hanging by James Earl Ray's death". BBC News. April 23, 1998. Archived from the original on January 12, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
86. ^ "Martin Luther King – Sniper in the Shrubbery?". africanaonline.com. 2006. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved December 23, 2006.
87. ^ Allan M. Jalon (March 8, 2006). "A break-in to end all break-ins". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
88. ^ United States Congress 2002, p. 15235.
89. ^ Canedy, Dana (April 6, 2002). "A Minister Says His Father, Now Dead, Killed Dr. King". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 10, 2008. Retrieved December 29, 2008.
90. ^ Canedy, Dana (April 6, 2002). "My father killed King, says pastor, 34 years on". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2006.
91. ^ Goodman, Amy; Gonzalez, Juan (January 15, 2004). "Jesse Jackson On 'Mad Dean Disease,' the 2000 Elections and Martin Luther King". Democracy Now!. Archived from the original on September 17, 2006. Retrieved September 18, 2006.
92. ^ Branch 2007, p. 770.

### Cited sources

[edit]

* Borrell, Clive (June 28, 1968). "Ramon Sneyd denies that he killed Dr King". The Times. London. p. 2\. Archived from the original on July 13, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2009.
* Branch, Taylor (2007). At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965–68. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0684857138.
* Clarke, James W. (2007). Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists. Piscataway, New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0765803412. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved June 17, 2015.
* Duffy, Bernard K.; Leeman, Richard W. (2005). American Voices: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Orators. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0313327902. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
* Klein, Joe (2006). Politics Lost: How American Democracy Was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid (Large print ed.). New York City: Random House. ISBN 9780739326145.
* Kotz, Nick (2006). "14. Another Martyr". Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Laws That Changed America. Boston: Mariner Books. ISBN 978-0618641833.
* Newfield, Jack (1988). Robert Kennedy: A Memoir (3rd ed.). New York City: Plume. ISBN 978-0452260641.
* Pepper, William F. (2003). An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King. Brooklyn: Verso Books. ISBN 978-1859846957.
* Perlstein, Rick (2009). Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America. Scribner. ISBN 978-0743243032.
* United States Congress (2002). Congressional Record Vol. 148 Part 11: Proceedings and Debates of the 107th Congress Second Session. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 15235\. ISBN 978-0113225491. Archived from the original on August 9, 2024. Retrieved November 8, 2020.

## External links

[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr..

* http://www.thekingcenter.org/civil-case-king-family-versus-jowers/ Archived April 25, 2018, at the Wayback Machine (Partial Transcripts of 1998 Trial), hosted by The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia.
* Department of Justice investigation of assassination, 2000 (following the Jowers' allegations)
* Congressional Report on King's assassination
* Shelby County Register of Deeds documents Archived February 7, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, Assassination Investigation
* Donald E. Wilkes Jr., "Death of MLK Still a Mystery" (1987), University of Georgia Law School.
* Donald E. Wilkes Jr., "What Are Facts of MLK Murder?" (1987).
* "The Accident on a Garbage Truck That Led to the Death of Martin Luther King, Jr.", episode of the Southern Hollows podcast
* Dr. King's Assassination Archived May 5, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Civil Rights Digital Library.

* v
* t
* e

Martin Luther King Jr.

Speeches, writings, movements, and protests

| Speeches|

* "Give Us the Ballot" (1957)
* "I Have a Dream" (1963)
* "How Long, Not Long" (1965)
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence" (1967)
* "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (1968)

|

Writings|

* Stride Toward Freedom (1958)
* "What Is Man?" (1959)
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Strength to Love (1963)
* "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (1963)
* Why We Can't Wait (1964)
* Conscience for Change (1967)
* Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Movements
and protests|

* Montgomery bus boycott (1955–1956)
* Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957)
* Albany Movement (1961–1962)
* Birmingham campaign (1963)
* March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963)
* St. Augustine movement (1963–1964)
* Selma to Montgomery marches (1965)
* Chicago Freedom Movement (1966)
* Mississippi March Against Fear (1966)
* Anti-Vietnam War movement (1967)
* Memphis sanitation strike (1968)
* Poor People's Campaign (1968)

People

| Family|

* Coretta Scott King (wife)
* Yolanda King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King III (son)
* Dexter King (son)
* Bernice King (daughter)
* Martin Luther King Sr. (father)
* Alberta Williams King (mother)
* Christine King Farris (sister)
* A. D. King (brother)
* James Albert King (grandfather)
* Alveda King (niece)

|

Other
leaders|

* Ralph Abernathy (mentor, colleague)
* Ella Baker (colleague)
* James Bevel (strategist / colleague)
* Dorothy Cotton (colleague)
* Jesse Jackson (protégé)
* Bernard Lafayette (colleague)
* James Lawson (colleague)
* John Lewis (colleague)
* Joseph Lowery (colleague)
* Benjamin Mays (mentor)
* Diane Nash (colleague)
* James Orange (colleague)
* Bayard Rustin (advisor)
* Fred Shuttlesworth (colleague)
* C. T. Vivian (colleague)
* Wyatt Walker (colleague)
* Hosea Williams (colleague)
* Andrew Young (colleague)

Assassination

* Lorraine Motel (now National Civil Rights Museum)
* Riots
* Funeral
* James Earl Ray
* Jack Kershaw
* U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA)
* Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act
* Loyd Jowers
* Trial
* Conspiracy theories

Media

| Film|

* King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970 documentary)
* Our Friend, Martin (1999 animated)
* Boycott (2001 film)
* The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 (2008 documentary)
* Selma (2014 film)
* All the Way (2016 film)
* King in the Wilderness (2018 documentary)
* MLK/FBI (2020 documentary)
* Rustin (2023 film)

|

Television|

* King (1978 miniseries)
* "The First Store" (The Jeffersons, 1980)
* "Great X-Pectations" (A Different World, 1993)
* "The Promised Land" (New York Undercover, 1997)
* Selma, Lord, Selma (1999)
* "Return of the King" (The Boondocks, 2006)
* Alpha Man: The Brotherhood of MLK (2011 documentary)
* Genius (MLK/X, 2024)

Plays|

* The Meeting (1987)
* The Mountaintop (2009)
* I Dream (2010)
* All the Way (2012)

Illustrated|

* Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story (1957 comic book)

Music|

* "Abraham, Martin and John" (Dion)
* "March! For Martin Luther King" (John Fahey)
* "Martin Luther King's Dream" (Strawbs)
* "Happy Birthday" (Stevie Wonder)
* "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (U2)
* "MLK" (U2)
* "King Holiday" (King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew)
* "By the Time I Get to Arizona" (Public Enemy)
* "Shed a Little Light" (James Taylor)
* "Up to the Mountain" (Patti Griffin)
* "Never Alone Martin" (Jason Upton)
* "Symphony of Brotherhood" (Miri Ben-Ari)
* Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King (1995 album)
* "A Dream" (Common featuring will.i.am)
* "Glory" (Common and John Legend)

Related|

* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc.
* King v. Trustees of Boston Univ.

Related topics

* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* passage
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* National Historical Park
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* National Civil Rights Museum
* Big Six
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Authorship issues
* FBI–King suicide letter
* Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity
* Season for Nonviolence
* U.S. Capitol Rotunda sculpture
* Oval Office bust
* Homage to King sculpture, Atlanta
* Hope Moving Forward statue, Atlanta
* Safe House Black History Museum
* Statues of Martin Luther King Jr.
* Atlanta
* Boston
* Denver
* Houston
* Jersey City
* Milwaukee
* Mexico City
* Newark
* Pueblo, Colorado
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco
* Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (Compton)
* Landmark for Peace Memorial, Indianapolis
* The Dream sculpture, Portland, Oregon
* Kennedy–King College
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C.
* Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose
* Paris park
* Memorials to Martin Luther King Jr.
* King County, Washington
* Eponymous streets
* America in the King Years
* Civil rights movement in popular culture
* Lee–Jackson–King Day

* v
* t
* e

Civil rights movement (1954–1968)

Events
(timeline)|

| Prior to 1954|

* Journey of Reconciliation
* Executive Order 9981
* Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore
* Sweatt v. Painter (1950)
* McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950)
* Baton Rouge bus boycott

|

1954–1959|

* Brown v. Board of Education
* Bolling v. Sharpe
* Briggs v. Elliott
* Davis v. Prince Edward County
* Gebhart v. Belton
* Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company
* Emmett Till
* Montgomery bus boycott
* Browder v. Gayle
* Tallahassee bus boycott
* Mansfield school desegregation
* 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
* "Give Us the Ballot"
* Royal Ice Cream sit-in
* Little Rock Nine
* Cooper v. Aaron
* Civil Rights Act of 1957
* Ministers' Manifesto
* Katz Drug Store sit-in
* Kissing Case
* Biloxi wade-ins

1960–1963|

* New Year's Day March
* Sit-in movement
* Greensboro sit-ins
* Nashville sit-ins
* Sibley Commission
* Atlanta sit-ins
* Savannah Protest Movement
* Greenville Eight
* Civil Rights Act of 1960
* Ax Handle Saturday
* Gomillion v. Lightfoot
* Boynton v. Virginia
* University of Georgia desegregation riot
* Rock Hill sit-ins
* Robert F. Kennedy's Law Day Address
* Freedom Rides
* Anniston bombing
* Birmingham attack
* Garner v. Louisiana
* Albany Movement
* Cambridge movement
* University of Chicago sit-ins
* "Second Emancipation Proclamation"
* Meredith enrollment, Ole Miss riot
* Atlanta's Berlin Wall
* "Segregation now, segregation forever"
* Stand in the Schoolhouse Door
* 1963 Birmingham campaign
* Letter from Birmingham Jail
* Children's Crusade
* Birmingham riot
* 16th Street Baptist Church bombing
* John F. Kennedy's speech to the nation on Civil Rights
* Detroit Walk to Freedom
* March on Washington
* "I Have a Dream"
* Big Six
* St. Augustine movement

1964–1968|

* Twenty-fourth Amendment
* Chester school protests
* Bloody Tuesday
* 1964 Monson Motor Lodge protests
* Freedom Summer
* workers' murders
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Heart of Atlanta Motel, Inc. v. United States
* Katzenbach v. McClung
* 1964–1965 Scripto strike
* 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches
* "How Long, Not Long"
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections
* March Against Fear
* White House Conference on Civil Rights
* Chicago Freedom Movement/Chicago open housing movement
* Loving v. Virginia
* Memphis sanitation strike
* King assassination
* funeral
* riots
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Poor People's Campaign
* Green v. County School Board of New Kent County
* Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co.

Activist
groups|

* Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights
* Atlanta Negro Voters League
* Atlanta Student Movement
* Black Panther Party
* Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
* Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
* Committee for Freedom Now
* Committee on Appeal for Human Rights
* An Appeal for Human Rights
* Council for United Civil Rights Leadership
* Council of Federated Organizations
* Dallas County Voters League
* Deacons for Defense and Justice
* Georgia Council on Human Relations
* Highlander Folk School
* Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
* Lowndes County Freedom Organization
* Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
* Montgomery Improvement Association
* NAACP
* Youth Council
* Nashville Student Movement
* Nation of Islam
* Northern Student Movement
* National Council of Negro Women
* National Urban League
* Operation Breadbasket
* Regional Council of Negro Leadership
* Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
* Southern Regional Council
* Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
* The Freedom Singers
* United Auto Workers (UAW)
* Wednesdays in Mississippi
* Women's Political Council

Activists|

* Ralph Abernathy
* Victoria Gray Adams
* Zev Aelony
* Mathew Ahmann
* Muhammad Ali
* William G. Anderson
* Gwendolyn Armstrong
* Arnold Aronson
* Ella Baker
* James Baldwin
* Marion Barry
* Daisy Bates
* Harry Belafonte
* James Bevel
* Claude Black
* Gloria Blackwell
* Randolph Blackwell
* Unita Blackwell
* Ezell Blair Jr.
* Joanne Bland
* Julian Bond
* Joseph E. Boone
* William Holmes Borders
* Amelia Boynton
* Bruce Boynton
* Raylawni Branch
* Stanley Branche
* Ruby Bridges
* Aurelia Browder
* H. Rap Brown
* Ralph Bunche
* John H. Calhoun
* Guy Carawan
* Stokely Carmichael
* Johnnie Carr
* James Chaney
* J. L. Chestnut
* Shirley Chisholm
* Colia Lafayette Clark
* Ramsey Clark
* Septima Clark
* Xernona Clayton
* Eldridge Cleaver
* Kathleen Cleaver
* Josephine Dobbs Clement
* Charles E. Cobb Jr.
* Annie Lee Cooper
* Dorothy Cotton
* Claudette Colvin
* Vernon Dahmer
* Jonathan Daniels
* Abraham Lincoln Davis
* Angela Davis
* Joseph DeLaine
* Dave Dennis
* Annie Bell Robinson Devine
* John Wesley Dobbs
* Patricia Stephens Due
* Joseph Ellwanger
* Charles Evers
* Medgar Evers
* Myrlie Evers-Williams
* Chuck Fager
* James Farmer
* Walter Fauntroy
* James Forman
* Marie Foster
* Golden Frinks
* Andrew Goodman
* Robert Graetz
* Fred Gray
* Jack Greenberg
* Dick Gregory
* Lawrence Guyot
* Prathia Hall
* Fannie Lou Hamer
* Fred Hampton
* William E. Harbour
* Vincent Harding
* Dorothy Height
* Audrey Faye Hendricks
* Lola Hendricks
* Aaron Henry
* Oliver Hill
* Donald L. Hollowell
* James Hood
* Myles Horton
* Zilphia Horton
* T. R. M. Howard
* Ruby Hurley
* Cecil Ivory
* Jesse Jackson
* Jimmie Lee Jackson
* Richie Jean Jackson
* T. J. Jemison
* Esau Jenkins
* Barbara Rose Johns
* Vernon Johns
* Frank Minis Johnson
* Clarence Jones
* J. Charles Jones
* Matthew Jones
* Vernon Jordan
* Tom Kahn
* Clyde Kennard
* A. D. King
* C.B. King
* Coretta Scott King
* Martin Luther King Jr.
* Martin Luther King Sr.
* Bernard Lafayette
* James Lawson
* Bernard Lee
* Sanford R. Leigh
* Jim Letherer
* Stanley Levison
* John Lewis
* Viola Liuzzo
* Z. Alexander Looby
* Joseph Lowery
* Clara Luper
* Danny Lyon
* Malcolm X
* Mae Mallory
* Vivian Malone
* Bob Mants
* Thurgood Marshall
* Benjamin Mays
* Franklin McCain
* Charles McDew
* Ralph McGill
* Floyd McKissick
* Joseph McNeil
* James Meredith
* William Ming
* Jack Minnis
* Amzie Moore
* Cecil B. Moore
* Douglas E. Moore
* Harriette Moore
* Harry T. Moore
* Queen Mother Moore
* William Lewis Moore
* Irene Morgan
* Bob Moses
* William Moyer
* Elijah Muhammad
* Diane Nash
* Charles Neblett
* Huey P. Newton
* Edgar Nixon
* Jack O'Dell
* James Orange
* Rosa Parks
* James Peck
* Charles Person
* Homer Plessy
* Adam Clayton Powell Jr.
* Fay Bellamy Powell
* Rodney N. Powell
* Al Raby
* Lincoln Ragsdale
* A. Philip Randolph
* George Raymond
* George Raymond Jr.
* Bernice Johnson Reagon
* Cordell Reagon
* James Reeb
* Frederick D. Reese
* Walter Reuther
* Gloria Richardson
* David Richmond
* Bernice Robinson
* Jo Ann Robinson
* Angela Russell
* Bayard Rustin
* Bernie Sanders
* Michael Schwerner
* Bobby Seale
* Pete Seeger
* Cleveland Sellers
* Charles Sherrod
* Alexander D. Shimkin
* Fred Shuttlesworth
* Modjeska Monteith Simkins
* Glenn E. Smiley
* A. Maceo Smith
* Kelly Miller Smith
* Mary Louise Smith
* Maxine Smith
* Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson
* Charles Kenzie Steele
* Hank Thomas
* Dorothy Tillman
* A. P. Tureaud
* Hartman Turnbow
* Albert Turner
* C. T. Vivian
* A. T. Walden
* Wyatt Tee Walker
* Hollis Watkins
* Walter Francis White
* Roy Wilkins
* Hosea Williams
* Kale Williams
* Robert F. Williams
* Q. V. Williamson
* Andrew Young
* Whitney Young
* Sammy Younge Jr.
* Bob Zellner
* James Zwerg

By region|

* Omaha, Nebraska
* South Carolina

Movement
songs|

* "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round"
* "If You Miss Me at the Back of the Bus"
* "Kumbaya"
* "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize"
* "Oh, Freedom"
* "This Little Light of Mine"
* "We Shall Not Be Moved"
* "We Shall Overcome"
* "Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind Stayed On Freedom)"

Influences|

* Nonviolence
* Padayatra
* Sermon on the Mount
* Mahatma Gandhi
* Ahimsa
* Satyagraha
* The Kingdom of God Is Within You
* Frederick Douglass
* W. E. B. Du Bois
* Mary McLeod Bethune

Related|

* Jim Crow laws
* Lynching in the United States
* Plessy v. Ferguson
* Separate but equal
* Buchanan v. Warley
* Hocutt v. Wilson
* Sweatt v. Painter
* Hernandez v. Texas
* Loving v. Virginia
* African-American women in the movement
* Jews in the civil rights movement
* Fifth Circuit Four
* 16th Street Baptist Church
* Kelly Ingram Park
* A.G. Gaston Motel
* Bethel Baptist Church
* Brown Chapel
* Dexter Avenue Baptist Church
* Holt Street Baptist Church
* Edmund Pettus Bridge
* March on Washington Movement
* African-American churches attacked
* List of lynching victims in the United States
* Freedom Schools
* Freedom songs
* Spring Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam
* "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence"
* Voter Education Project
* 1960s counterculture
* African American founding fathers of the United States
* Eyes on the Prize

Legacy|

* In popular culture
* Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
* Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument
* Civil Rights Memorial
* Civil Rights Movement Archive
* Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument
* Medgar and Myrlie Evers Home National Monument
* Freedom Rides Museum
* Freedom Riders National Monument
* King Center for Nonviolent Social Change
* Martin Luther King Jr. Day
* Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
* other King memorials
* Mississippi Civil Rights Museum
* National Civil Rights Museum
* National Voting Rights Museum
* St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument

Noted
historians|

* Taylor Branch
* Clayborne Carson
* John Dittmer
* Michael Eric Dyson
* Chuck Fager
* Adam Fairclough
* David Garrow
* David Halberstam
* Vincent Harding
* Steven F. Lawson
* Doug McAdam
* Diane McWhorter
* Charles M. Payne
* Thomas E. Ricks
* Timothy Tyson
* Akinyele Umoja
* Movement photographers

Civil rights movement portal

‹ The template below (Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson) is being considered for deletion. See templates for discussion to help reach a consensus. ›

* v
* t
* e

Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson (1963–1969)

Timeline|

* First inauguration
* Let Us Continue
* Second inauguration
* White House preservation
* 1964 SOTU Address
* 1965 SOTU Address
* 1966 SOTU Address
* 1967 SOTU Address
* 1968 SOTU Address
* 1969 SOTU Address
* Judicial appointments
* Supreme Court
* Thurgood Marshall Supreme Court nomination
* controversies
* Johnson desk
* Nixon transition
* Executive Orders
* Presidential Proclamations
* Meritorious Service Medal

Foreign policy|

* Johnson Doctrine
* Dominican Republic occupation
* Vietnam War
* Gulf of Tonkin Resolution
* "Credibility gap"
* Glassboro Summit
* Outer Space Treaty
* Operation CHAOS

Domestic policy|

* Administrative Conference of the United States (1964)
* Cannabis policy
* Civil Rights Act of 1964
* Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
* Executive Order 11246 (1965)
* Flood Control Act of 1965
* Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965
* Voting Rights Act of 1965
* Child Nutrition Act
* 1966; School Breakfast Program
* Uniform Time Act (1966)
* White House Conference on Civil Rights (1966)
* Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
* Executive Order 11375 (1967)
* Civil Rights Act of 1968
* Gun Control Act of 1968
* Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968
* Law Enforcement Assistance Administration

Economic policy|

* Revenue Act of 1964
* Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964
* Urban Mass Transportation Administration
* Coinage Act of 1965
* Food and Agriculture Act of 1965
* High-Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965
* U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (1965)
* Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (1966)
* Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (1966)
* National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (1966)
* Tax Adjustment Act of 1966
* Agricultural Fair Practices Act of 1967
* U.S. Department of Transportation (1967)
* Wholesome Meat Act (1967)
* Architectural Barriers Act of 1968
* Consumer Credit Protection Act of 1968
* Truth in Lending Act
* Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1968
* Housing and Urban Development Act of 1968
* Ginnie Mae
* National Flood Insurance Act of 1968
* National Flood Insurance Program
* Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1968
* Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968
* Williams Act (1968)

Environmental
policy|

* Wilderness Act (1964)
* Land and Water Conservation Fund (1965)
* Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act of 1965
* Rivers and Harbors Act of 1965
* Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965
* Clean Waters Restoration Act (1966)
* National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966
* Air Quality Act of 1967
* National Wild and Scenic Rivers System (1968)

Great Society/
War on Poverty|

* Economic Opportunity Act of 1964
* Community Action Agencies
* Head Start
* Job Corps
* Office of Economic Opportunity
* Food Stamp Act of 1964
* Food Stamp Program
* AmeriCorps VISTA (1965)
* Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
* Higher Education Act of 1965
* FAFSA
* Federal Family Education Loan Program
* Federal Work-Study Program
* Pell Grant
* Stafford Loan
* Student loans in the United States
* Teacher Corps
* TRIO
* Upward Bound
* National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities
* 1965; National Endowment for the Arts
* National Endowment for the Humanities
* Older Americans Act (1965)
* Administration on Aging
* Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965
* Economic Development Administration
* Social Security Amendments of 1965
* Medicare
* Medicaid
* Model Cities Program (1966)
* National Historic Preservation Act
* 1966; National Register of Historic Places
* National Historic Landmark
* State Historic Preservation Office
* Bilingual Education Act (1967)
* Public Broadcasting Act of 1967
* Corporation for Public Broadcasting
* PBS
* NPR

* ← Kennedy administration
* Nixon administration →

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template