On April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray, an Illinois
man with an extensive rap sheet, shot and
killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a preacher's
son who rose to become perhaps the most revered
civil rights leader in American history.
Some historians allege there was a broader
conspiracy into King's death.
Every year around this time, people visit
the place where it happened: the Lorraine
Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
"I was coming across the courtyard that afternoon. He said, 'Jesse, you're late.' He was an hour late.
I said, 'Doc, you're late.' We were going to Rev. Kyles' home as if it were a big formal.
'We're going to his home and you don't even have on a shirt and tie.' 'Dr. King, the prerequisite for eating is an
appetite not a shirt and tie.' He said, 'You're crazy!' We laughed, we played that way. He looked at Ben and said,
'Ben, be sure to play my song.' Then he was shot."
A half-century has passed since the preacher's
death, but his powerful voice continues to
influence generations.
King's message of equality through nonviolent
protest cemented him as the central figure
of the civil rights movement.
From the historic March on Washington, an
event punctuated by his famous "I Have A Dream"
speech, to a five-day march from Selma to
Montgomery, Alabama, when protesters demanding
voting rights sustained beatings from state troopers.
King's influence ultimately led to the passage
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting
Rights Act a year later, monumental achievements
in the push for racial equality.
And he focused on some other big issues in
the years right before his death.
In 1966, he moved to Chicago and helped launch
the Chicago Freedom Movement, a campaign to
break down discrimination barriers in housing.
King would lead one peaceful march in support
of open housing into Marquette Park, an area
southwest of downtown, which, at the time,
was all-white.
And things got ugly.
Racist counterprotesters hurled insults and objects.
King himself was hit in the head by a rock
but pressed on.
He described the events up north as some of
the worst displays of humanity he ever encountered.
Though he's widely admired now, King wasn't
always so popular.
According to Gallup polls, in 1963 more people
had a positive view of King than a negative one.
But by August of 1966, his popularity tanked:
63 percent gave him a thumbs-down.
King emerged as an outspoken opponent of the
Vietnam War, a multi-pronged conflict that
claimed the lives of more than 3 million people,
including 58,000 Americans.
He delivered a speech in New York City on
April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his death.
In it, King unleashed a scathing rebuke of
the U.S. for its role in the war after he
had faced questions about his silence on the matter.
In the years leading up to his death, King
became an advocate for wealth redistribution,
and he fought for improving income inequality.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1963,
about 36 million people, or 20 percent of
the U.S. population, lived below the poverty
line, though it improved in the years after.
King called on the government to do more to
help all Americans — not just black people
— who struggled financially.
And in the late 1960s, King helped spearhead
the Poor People's Campaign, an effort to lift
people out of poverty that continued after
his death.
In 1968, King also supported a sanitation workers' strike in Memphis.
The workers walked off the job after a malfunctioning
compactor crushed to death two trash collectors.
They also demanded better pay and improved
working conditions.
Violence erupted during one protest, running
counter to King's message of peaceful resistance.
On April 3, 1968, King addressed a crowd in
Memphis.
He called for an economic boycott and urged
people to continue speaking out but told them
not to resort to violence.
It was in this speech that King delivered
his prophetic ending.
