On This Day: Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated
Associated Press Martin Luther King stands with Hosea Williams , Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated at approximately the same place. April 04, 2011 06:00 AM by findingDulcinea Staff On April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was shot while standing on a hotel balcony in Memphis. Small-time convict James Earl Ray was sent to prison for the crime, but the King family believes the assassination was part of a larger government conspiracy. Civil Rights Leader Slain In the late 1950s and ‘60s, Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement , which culminated with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1964 and 1965. In the ensuing years, King shifted his focus to anti-poverty and anti-war campaigns . In March 1968, King went to Memphis to campaign for the rights of black sanitation workers . On March 28, he led a March that turned violent, a sign of the increasing m...