====== Assassination of Martin Luther King ====== The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. refers to the fatal shooting of the American civil rights leader on 4 April 1968 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. King was struck by a single rifle bullet while standing on the motel's second-floor balcony. He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m. local time. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on 8 June 1968 at London's Heathrow Airport and later pleaded guilty to the murder, receiving a 99-year sentence. The assassination triggered widespread riots in more than 100 American cities and accelerated the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. Debate over the full circumstances of King's death - including whether Ray acted alone and whether government agencies were involved - has continued for decades. ===== Background ===== King had traveled to Memphis to support a strike by the city's black sanitation workers, who were protesting unsafe working conditions and unequal pay. He had delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple the evening of 3 April 1968, the night before his death. At the time of the assassination, King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were also organizing the Poor People's Campaign, a multiracial push for economic justice in Washington, D.C. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director J. Edgar Hoover had considered King a subversive threat and authorized extensive surveillance of him under the COINTELPRO program. ===== The Shooting and Investigation ===== The shot was fired from the bathroom window of Bessie Brewer's rooming house, across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Ray fled the scene, leaving behind a bundle containing a Remington Model 760 rifle and personal effects traceable to him. After a two-month international manhunt, he was apprehended in London using a Canadian passport in an assumed name. Ray initially pleaded guilty in March 1969 to avoid a potential death sentence, then recanted three days later, claiming he had been manipulated by a man he called "Raoul." He sought a trial for the remainder of his life and died in prison in 1998. In 1977-1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) investigated the assassination and concluded that Ray fired the shot that killed King but that a conspiracy was likely - specifically implicating figures in the St. Louis criminal underworld as possible backers. The HSCA stopped short of identifying the full scope or membership of any conspiracy. The Department of Justice conducted a further review, concluding in 2000 that the evidence did not support the existence of a conspiracy involving government agencies or organized crime beyond Ray himself. A 1999 civil lawsuit brought by the King family - //King v. Jowers// - resulted in a jury verdict finding that Loyd Jowers, a Memphis restaurant owner, and unnamed "others, including government agencies," had participated in a conspiracy to assassinate King. The Justice Department subsequently reviewed the civil verdict and found it unsupported by credible evidence. The civil suit's findings are not binding legal determinations of criminal guilt. ===== Consensus Status ===== There is broad scholarly and legal consensus that James Earl Ray fired the shot that killed King. The HSCA concluded a conspiracy was likely, though its scope and membership were not fully identified. See [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-historical-consensus|Historical Consensus]] and [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-legal-consensus|Legal Consensus]]. ===== Viewpoints ===== **Ray acted alone.** The official position of the Department of Justice holds that Ray planned and carried out the assassination without meaningful assistance from outside parties. See [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-lone-gunman-viewpoint|Lone Gunman Viewpoint]]. **A criminal conspiracy was involved.** The HSCA concluded that a conspiracy likely existed, potentially involving individuals with racial animus and ties to organized crime in Missouri and Louisiana. See [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-criminal-conspiracy-viewpoint|Criminal Conspiracy Viewpoint]]. **Government agencies were involved.** Some researchers and members of the King family have argued that the FBI, military intelligence, or other government entities played a role in planning or covering up the assassination, citing COINTELPRO abuses and anomalies in the official investigation. See [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-government-involvement-viewpoint|Government Involvement Viewpoint]]. **The civil verdict reflects the truth.** A view held by some researchers and King family members holds that the 1999 civil jury verdict in //King v. Jowers// constitutes meaningful evidence of a broader conspiracy involving Jowers and government actors. See [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-jowers-conspiracy-viewpoint|Jowers Conspiracy Viewpoint]]. ===== Related Pages ===== * [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-history|Assassination of Martin Luther King - History]] * [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-debate|Assassination of Martin Luther King - Debate]] * [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-historical-consensus|Assassination of Martin Luther King - Historical Consensus]] * [[assassination-of-martin-luther-king-legal-consensus|Assassination of Martin Luther King - Legal Consensus]] * [[martin-luther-king|Martin Luther King]] * [[civil-rights-movement|Civil Rights Movement]] * [[cointelpro|COINTELPRO]] * [[house-select-committee-on-assassinations|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] * [[memphis-sanitation-strike|Memphis Sanitation Strike]] * [[james-earl-ray|James Earl Ray]] ===== Footnotes ===== - United States Department of Justice. //Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.// Washington, D.C.: DOJ, 2000. - United States House of Representatives, Select Committee on Assassinations. //Final Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations.// Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1979. - Posner, Gerald. //Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.// New York: Random House, 1998. - Pepper, William F. //An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King.// London: Verso, 2003. - Branch, Taylor. //At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68.// New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. - //King v. Jowers//, No. 97-201-IV (Shelby County, Tenn. Circuit Court, December 8, 1999).