Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Martin Luther King Jr. was a civil rights activist during the mid 1950’s and through the 1960’s. He was also a Baptist Minister in his home town of Atlanta, Georgia. King was a good student and growing up with very religious parents steered him toward being a minister. Being very involved with religion helped King realise that what people were doing to African Americans was wrong and it needed to be fixed. What did King do exactly to make someone want to assassinate him? On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in the head on the balcony of his motel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was in Memphis to lead a protest and was getting ready to partake in the protest at the time of the assassination. He was standing on the balcony with some of his colleagues when a bullet was fired from a window across the street. King collapsed and was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and was pronounced deceased at 7:05pm that evening. The assassination of the famous Civil Rights Activist shocked America, he gave people a voice during this time when people were afraid. The African American Civil Rights Movement started in …show more content…
“During the public part of the meeting, Mr. King did most of the talking. The conversation was awkward and stilted, with Mr. King filling the silences left by Mr. Ray and with Mr. Ray rambling far from the topic of his role in Dr. King's killing.” (www.nytimes.com). So many Americans were grieved to hear about the assassination that many major cities went up in flames or riots.The people who evoked the riots and virulent fires wanted Ray to be sentenced to a death penalty. Riots took place in top cities such as, Chicago, Memphis, Little Rock, and