Martin Luther King, Jr., assassination was the fatal shooting of United States civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis , Tennessee, in April 1968. The killing shocked the world and dealt a major blow to the civil rights movement . Escaped convict James Earl Ray confessed to the shooting. Many people doubted that Ray acted alone, but no allegations of conspiracy were ever proved.
King’s death.
Martin Luther King, Jr., was the most prominent leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. The movement sought to end discrimination against African Americans . While organizing a campaign against poverty, King went to Memphis to support a strike of black garbage workers. At about 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, King stood on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. A bullet struck King in the neck, killing him. James Earl Ray, a white drifter and escaped convict, pleaded guilty to the crime in 1969.
People throughout the world mourned King’s death. The assassination produced immediate shock, grief, and anger. African Americans rioted in more than 100 cities. A few months later, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which prohibited racial discrimination in the sale and rental of most housing in the nation.
The case against Ray.
Ray escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1967. He had served just over 7 years of a 20-year sentence for a string of store robberies. Authorities believe that after escaping from prison, Ray robbed a bank in Alton, Illinois. Ray then went to Canada before traveling to Mexico and California. He took on a series of assumed names, including Eric S. Galt, John Willard, and Harvey Lowmeyer.
Ray had long expressed support for segregation—that is, the forced separation of racial groups. Some people believed that he planned the assassination to collect a bounty that white supremacists had placed on King. White supremacists believe that white people are superior to people of other races. In March 1968, he visited Atlanta, Georgia, where he rented a room near King’s home and church. Later that month, Ray purchased a hunting rifle from a store in Birmingham, Alabama. In early April, news reports announced that King would be visiting Memphis and staying in the Lorraine Motel. Ray obtained a room in the back of a nearby boarding house on April 4, before the time of the shooting.
On April 4, soon after King was shot, police discovered the rifle, along with other items Ray had purchased, on a sidewalk near the boarding house. The discovery soon led investigators to target Ray as their main suspect. Ray fled to Canada, and later to the United Kingdom, where authorities arrested him in June 1968. The United Kingdom extradited (sent) him to the United States the following month. In March 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to the killing. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray later tried to withdraw his plea, but his conviction was upheld. Ray died in 1998.
Conspiracy allegations.
Although Ray confessed to King’s killing, many people still doubted that Ray had acted alone. Some believed that the evidence against Ray would not have been sufficient to convict him of the crime. Doubters questioned why Ray would have left his rifle in plain view before fleeing Memphis. Some observers were convinced that members of criminal organizations and law enforcement conspired to kill the civil rights leader. Others suspected that some of Ray’s family assisted his escape. People questioned how Ray would have had the money to travel so widely and the ability to obtain identification documents so easily under his numerous assumed names. Some believe that Ray confessed—or was forced to confess—to the killing to avoid a trial that might have uncovered the conspiracy. Prior to Ray’s death in 1998, some members of the King family stated that they were convinced of Ray’s innocence.
In a bid to get their client a new trial, Ray’s lawyers claimed that a man named Raoul had directed Ray to buy a rifle and rent a room in the boarding house. They claimed that Raoul, not Ray, had done the shooting. But federal investigators found that the claim had no merit. In 1993, a former Memphis restaurant owner named Loyd Jowers claimed to have hired an assassin—not Ray—to murder King. Investigators, who soon proved Jowers’s claim to be false, believed that he had made up the story to obtain a book deal.
In 1978, a special committee of the U.S. House of Representatives reported the “likelihood” that Ray had been aided by others. In 2000, however, the U.S. Justice Department announced that an 18-month investigation turned up no evidence of a conspiracy.
Later events.
Following the shooting, the owner of the Lorraine Motel kept King’s room—Room 306—as a memorial. In 1991, the motel became the centerpiece of the National Civil Rights Museum . The Memphis museum preserves King’s room in period detail.
