Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

People

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Outcome

unknown

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the preeminent leader of the American civil rights movement, was assassinated by a single rifle shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He had come to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers in their fight for dignity, fair wages, and union recognition. His death, exactly one day after delivering his prophetic "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, sparked the Holy Week Uprising, with riots erupting in more than 100 American cities. James Earl Ray, a fugitive who had escaped from a Missouri prison a year earlier, was convicted of the assassination and sentenced to 99 years in prison.