Martin Luther KingMarch 1968
King goes to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment
United States of America · Politics / Civil Rights. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
King goes to Memphis, Tennessee, in support of the black sanitary public works employees, represented by AFSCME Local 1733, who had been on strike since March 12 for higher wages and better treatment
Five days later, President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader
Johnson declares a national day of mourning for the lost civil rights leader
King is booked in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel, owned by Walter Bailey, in Memphis, while standing on the motel's 2nd floor balcony, King is shot at 6:01 p.m. Five days later, President Lyndon B.
King is pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m.
King returns to Memphis and addresses a rally, delivering his "I've been to the Mountaintop" address at Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ, Inc. - World Headquarters), King's flight to Memphis had been delayed by a bomb threat against his plane.
The assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 60 cities.
Shot dead while stepping out onto a motel room balcony in Memphis
Two months after King's death, escaped convict James Earl Ray is captured at London Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport in the name of Ramon George Sneyd. Arrested for the murder of Martin Luther King by Scotland Yard at London airport
Ray is extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder, confessing to the assassination, though he recants this confession three days later
On the advice of his attorney Percy Foreman, Ray makes guilty plea to avoid a trial conviction and thus the possibility of receiving the death penalty, Ray is sentenced to a 99-year prison term
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