55 Years After the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
It has been 55 years since the evil, unjust assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was evolving his political views rapidly. By 1968, Dr. King was a completely different man from when part of the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott movement was. He took his last breath on Earth at the great, historic city of Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was a progressive and pro-democratic socialist African American Baptist clergyman and civil rights leader who was shot at 6:01 pm. CST at the Lorraine Motel. Dr. King faced death threats throughout his adult life. He was cursed at, stabbed, and assaulted before. By this time, Dr. King wanted to follow through to make the legitimate Memphis sanitation strike successful. Black men, who were sanitation workers, wanted living wages, union protection, and other economic benefits against a stubborn mayor Henry Loeb. Many leaders of the Memphis Sanitation strike were T.O. Jones, Helen Turner, Rev. James Lawson, etc. The walkout by the workers started on February 11, 1968. After protests and a government agents provoked violent occurrence, Dr. King was more adamantly to make sure that the strike will end up with victory (before his Poor People's Campaign march). America saw rapid deindustrialization, growth of inflation, and the continuation of the imperialist Vietnam War which validated Dr. King's point that there is something wrong with capitalism. Dr. Martin Luther King also accurately stated that there should be a radical restructuring of society where poverty is finally abolished, because there is no justice without economic and racial justice. There must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power in order for human beings to fulfill their God given destinies. Dr. King and others wanted billions of dollars to rebuild urban and rural centers, address other social issues, and do other progressive actions to address pernicious injustices. The 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. changed America and the world forever that still influenced the modern world in 2023 indeed.
1968
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the firm advocate of nonviolence, passed away in the year of 1968. The year of 1968 was a year that was one of the most important years in all of human history to put it lightly. It changed America and the world with its events, cultural changes, and other political developments. At the start of January 1968, anti-Vietnam War activists Dr. Benjamin Spock, William Sloan Coffin (the chaplain of Yale University), novelist Mitchell Goodman, Michael Ferber, and Marcus Raskin were indicted on charges of conspiracy to encourage violations of the draft laws by a grand jury in Boston. They protested legally and the indictment is an example of a political persecution. The draft is about forcing a grown man or a grown woman to potentially fight a war even if he or she disagrees with that war. The only exemption is applying for a conscientious objector. The four men would be convicted, and Raskin was acquitted on June 14th, 1968. The Vietnam War was supported by then President Lyndon Baines Johnson giving his State of the Union Address on January 17, 1968. Later, there was the crew of the USS Pueblo (a Navy intelligence vessel) being captured by North Korean patrol boats. The Tet Offensive existed. The Tet Offensive was about North Vietnamese military forces fighting American forces (and their South Vietnamese military allies) from Nha Trang to all over the Vietnamese peninsula starting on January 31, 1968. The nearly 70,000 North Vietnamese troops fighting during broad daylight from the jungles to the cities. Even the U.S. embassy in Saigon was attacked by 2:45 am, and it was held until 9:15 am. It took place for weeks, and the U.S. was victorious in the battle. The city of Hue was destroyed during the aftermath of the Tet Offensive. Yet, the American public saw how the war was a stalemate, and the situation was brutal. Many knew about the picture showing a south Vietnamese security official is captured on film executing a Viet Cong prisoner by American photographer Eddie Adams. The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph becomes yet another rallying point for anti-war protestors. Despite later claims that the prisoner had been accused of murdering a Saigon police officer and his family, the image seems to call into question everything claimed and assumed about the Vietnam War.
1968 saw Nixon running for President by February 2, 1968, for the Republican Party. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. continued to travel the world to fight for justice and oppose the Vietnam War. On February 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a sermon at his Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta which will come to be seen as prophetic. His speech contains what amounts to his own eulogy. After his death, he says, "I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody... that I tried to love and serve humanity. Yes, if you want to, say that I was a drum major for peace... for righteousness." Vietnam caused tons of Americans and Vietnamese human beings to die. By February 27, 1968, Walter Cronkite reported on the aftermath of the Tet Offensive in his television special called, "Who, What, When, Where, Why?" The report criticized U.S. officials and exposes how the war was really conducted. Cronkite said that the war was a stalemate or draw. He wanted negotiations for all sides to end the war. When the March 12 New Hampshire primary allowed Eugene McCarthy to be close to defeat LBJ, that shocked many Americans. McCarthy relied on college students and volunteers to get votes.
Senator Robert Kennedy decided to run for President on March 16, 1968. The My Lai massacre existed when 500 Vietnamese civilians from infants to the elderly were murdered by ground troops (in Charlie Company) from America. It lasted for three hours until three American fliers intervene to carry the wounded to safety. The fliers positioned their helicopter between the troops and the fleeing Vietnamese people. By March 22, 1968, in Czechoslovakia, Antonin Novotny resigned from the Czech presidency setting off alarm bells in Moscow. The next day leaders of five Warsaw Pact countries meet in Dresden, East Germany to discuss the crisis. By March 28, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lead a march in Memphis which turns violent. After King himself had been led from the scene one 16-year-old black teenage child was killed, 60 people are injured, and over 150 arrested. We know now that many government agent provocateurs initiated a lot of the violence. Dr. King was unfairly blamed by some (including by Senator Robert Byrd), and Dr. King promised to travel back again in forming a nonviolent march in Memphis (in preparation for his future Poor People's Campaign march in Washington, D.C.). President Lyndon Johnson delivered his Address to the Nation Announcing Steps To Limit the War in Vietnam and Reporting His Decision Not To Seek Reelection. The speech announced the first in a series of limitations on US bombing, promising to halt these activities above the 20th parallel (on March 31, 1968). That announcement shocked people worldwide as many thought that LBJ would run a re-election campaign in 1968.
The I Have Been to the Mountaintop Speech
The tragic end was coming. Many people wondered if Dr. King knew. Yet, "I've Been To the Mountaintop" was one of the many classic, prophetic speeches from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King was desperate to make the Memphis sanitation strike successful, because the rights of workers must be respected. Grown men and grown women deserve fair wages, dignity, respect, and a sense of community to establish their own life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness indeed. On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at the Mason Temple (Church of God in Christ Headquarters) in Memphis, Tennessee. It was raining and stormy at that night. Dr. King hesitated on whether to go or not. Yet, Dr. King decided to go to the church to express his progressive views on politics, economics, black freedom, fighting racism, and overall human liberation. It is a fact that humanity deserves a clean environment, voting rights, and equal rights for all people. In the church, the excitement was building rapidly for Dr. King to speak. When Dr. King came on the stage, the crowd shouted in joy and anticipation for Dr. King's eloquent words to show. The speech touched on many themes. At first, Dr. King gave greetings and praised his best friend, Ralph Abernathy. Then, he gave a panoramic view of the history of comparing the struggle of the Hebrews in Egypt to the struggle of black American workers in Memphis who just want economic justice. Dr. King wanted God to send him to the ages of Moses, the Greek philosophers' time (filled with Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Euripides, and Aristophanes), the age of the Roman emperors and leaders, the Renaissance, the Reformation, and to the time of Abraham Lincoln signing the Emancipation Proclamation. Then, he wanted God to allow him to live a few years in the 2nd half of the 20th century. Such comments are morbid, even him prophetically knowing that his time on Earth was short. Yet, Dr. King's speech came to elevate the cause of the sanitation workers, desiring to grow black owned institutions, and desiring freedom to spread in the world.
Dr. King opposed the court-imposed injunction restricting their rights of peaceful protestors. He said that people are rising up in Africa, America, etc. desiring to be free. He reminded the audience of how nonviolence resistance caused many positive conclusions in Montgomery, Selma, etc. Dr. King wanted boycotts against racist companies who refuse to treat black residents as equal citizens of America (along with building up a strong economic base in the black community). He used biblical imagery in the speech like the story of Jericho Road to make the point that when suffering people exist, we can't be bystanders. We have to work actively in changing society, so the poor and anyone suffering can have true justice in the world. He spoke about of his suffering like being stabbed by a deranged person and encouragement from a young child. Dr. King wanted America to defend the rights found in the documents of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. As he said, "...Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech. Somewhere I read of the freedom of press. Somewhere I read that the greatness of America is the right to protest for right. And so just as I said, we aren't going to let dogs or water hoses turn us around. We aren't going to let any injunction turn us around. We are going on..." At the end of the speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. predicted the future that he may not see the time of black people experiencing true freedom and justice, but he saw the Promised Land. He foreshadowed his death and he wasn't afraid to die. His final words in the speech are the following:
"...Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live – a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord..."
The crowd cheered and Dr. King hugged people. Dr. King saw the crowd cheering and crying. Then, Dr. King cried. He gave it his all in showing his progressive message about boycotts, economic justice, and freedom for sanitation workers.
Closing Moments
At the end of the Dr. Martin Luther King's life, he left the church in a high note after giving his Mountaintop speech. It ended at 10:30 pm. Later, Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy drove to Benjamin Hooks' house at 1860 South Parkway East for a late-night meal at 10:45 pm. By early Thursday morning on April 4th, 1968, Alfred Daniel King (or Dr. King's younger brother) came to the Lorraine Hotel with some associates (including Georgia Davis Powers and Lucretia Baldwin Ward. George Davis Powers was the Kentucky state Senator who worked with Dr. King before 1968 in desiring housing rights and equality for black people in the state of Kentucky. She babysit Muhammad Ali when he was a child) having driven there from Miami. They meet with other SCLC leaders for hours. Se. King visited the home of civil rights activist Tarlease Matthews from 11 pm. to 2:30 am. By 4 am, Dr. King, Lee, and Abernathy return to the Lorraine Motel and visit A.D. for about an hour, when Dr. King goes to bed. By 8 am, Lawson, AFSCME national organizer Jesse Epps, and the Rev. Ralph Jackson, a vocal civil-rights leader and pastor of St. Andrews AME Church, meet at The Peabody, 149 Union, for a strategy breakfast. By 8 am, Judge Bailey Brown met in Circuit Court with Andrew Young and the attorneys (Burch, Lucas, Bailey, Caywood, Cody, and Newman) to hear their request about lifting the restraining order.
They wanted restrictions if the April 8th march is allowed to come about. MPD director Frank Holloman said that he would rather see Dr. King lead a march than anybody else. By 9am, black and white ministers meet again at Mississippi Blvd. Christian Church at 971 Mississippi Blvd. They wanted to have their discussion from the day before. Rabbi Wax didn't want demonstrations and the black ministers wanted more demonstrations and protests. Mayor Loeb was in Brown's courtroom at 10 am. but says nothing. By 10:30 am, a large group of Invaders, led by Charles Cabbage, meets in Room 315 at the Lorraine Motel to argue that the SCLC needs to fund their Black Organizing Program if they expected help with the April 8th march. King attends the meeting briefly, tells them, “I don’t negotiate with brothers,” and walks out of the room. The Invaders leave the motel. By 12 noon, Dr. King and Abernathy share a catfish lunch in King's motel room. Judge Brown has a lunch break at the same time too. Chauncey Eskridge, King’s personal attorney and friend, arrives from Atlanta. Andrew Young, the SCLC’s executive vice president, talks after lunch, arguing that mass marches call attention to injustice in a nonviolent way. Brown concludes the meeting at 4 p.m.
The Memphis police and the FBI continued to have their surveillance of Dr. King and his associates at the Lorraine Motel. We don't know why two black firefighters — Norvell Wallace and Floyd Newsum — are transferred to other fire stations that day. The two police officers responsible for monitoring King are both black undercover “community relations” officers: detective Ed Redditt and patrolman Willie Richmond. By 12:50 pm, a woman called Fire Station #2 and tells Redditt that everyone knows he is an undercover cop, and “spying was an offense against his people.” This is not the first threat he has received during King’s stay in Memphis, so MPD officials remove him from his post and tell him to take his family into hiding. He is replaced with another black policeman at the station. Richmond remains at the fire station, watching activities at the Lorraine through slits in the paper covering the windows. While Rev. Andrew “Andy” Young of the SCLC had convinced U.S. District Court Judge Bailey Brown to allow Dr. King to organize a peaceful march scheduled for April 8, Dr. King was preparing for dinner with Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles. The following facts include odds things that happened before the assassination.
*Former Memphis PD Detective Jerry Williams had been assigned to Dr. King’s security detail twice before his final visit in 1968. Det. Williams asserted on Dr. King’s final visit that no black officers had been assigned to his security detail. The day before Dr. King’s death, Inspector Don H. Smith requested to remove his detail. The request was granted. Accounts differ regarding Dr. King’s final words. According to FBI documents, Dr. King was discussing the weather with his chauffeur, Solomon Jones Jr., when the fatal shot struck. Rev. Jesse Jackson instead recalls Dr. King chastising him for not wearing a tie. Dr. King then turned to musician Ben Branch, who was standing beside Jackson, and said, “Make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord.’ Play it real pretty.” According to Jackson, those were his final words. The FBI also disclosed that Dr. King’s trusted friend and renowned photographer, Ernest Withers, had been secretly working as an FBI informant. To be fair, Withers's daughters defended his father Ernest saying that he was an honorable man. To this day, Andrew Jerome Withers, Rosalind Withers, and Frances want to do their own FOIA request and talk to the FBI to clear their father's name (who was Ernest Withers). In addition to the FBI informants, a black undercover Memphis PD officer named Marrell McCollough had infiltrated the Invaders in 1968. McCollough stood in the parking lot of the Lorraine Motel on the night Dr. King died. He claimed to have been the first person to reach the body. Rev. Billy Kyles who was standing beside Dr. King on the balcony admitted decades later, “Only as I moved away so he could have a clear shot, the shot rang out.” Kyles has denied working as an FBI informant, even though he was accused of being a confidential Memphis PD informant.
By 1 pm, Dr. King and his brother A.D. call their mother in Atlanta, later hold an “impromptu SCLC meeting.” They and members of the local Community on the Move for Equality (COME) talk about putting some members of the Invaders on the SCLC staff. The Rev. Harold Middlebrook with COME believes, “Maybe exposure to Dr. King and his staff would give them the idea of being nonviolent.” Dr. King also talked with one of his best friend Dorothy Cotton (1930-2018), who was a SCLC leader. Dorothy Cotton was so great that she helped to organize protests to desegregate beaches in St. Augustine, Florida and organize protests in Selma. She trained 8,000 grassroots activists being inspired by the model created by Septima Clark (the Grandmother of the Civil Rights Movement). By 3 pm, more than a dozen members of the U.S. Army’s 111th Military Intelligence Group also monitored King’s activities from various downtown locations. At one point, they watch the Lorraine Motel from the rooftop of Fire Station #2. Memphis businessman Ned Cook meet with Loeb at City Hall and tells him that “the responsible element of the Negro community thought the thing was getting out of hand.” According to Beifuss, “There was a brightening in the mayor’s office.” At 3pm, Bandleader Ben Branch with Chicago’s Operation Breadbasket (a community organization that encouraged support for black-owned businesses) gathers a small band in one of the rooms at the Lorraine Motel to rehearse for the mass meeting later that night at Mason Temple. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, pastor of Monumental Baptist Church, join in singing old hymns: “Yield Not to Temptation,” “I’ve Been ’Buked and I’ve Been Scorned,” and “I’m So Glad Trouble Don’t Last Always.”
By 4:30 pm, Andrew Young returns to the Lorraine Motel to give King an update on the situation in Judge Bailey Brown’s courtroom. King chastised him in a joking way for not telling them anything sooner: “Why don’t you call and let me know what’s going on? We’re sitting here all day long waiting to hear from you.” They eventually start laughing and even get into a pillow fight. “Occasionally, he would get into those kinds of hilarious moods,” says Young. By 5pm, Dr. King joked with Lorene Bailey, the wife of motel owner Walter Bailey, about having dinner that evening with the Kyles. “If he don’t have good food out there, like that catfish we had,” he tells her, “I’m going to come back and eat here.” At the same time, eighteen local business leaders meet at The Peabody to discuss ways to settle the strike. As with every other meeting held across the city that day, they don’t come to any conclusions. “It was a cold audience,” says Memphis Labor Council secretary Bill Ross, “and a last-ditch, desperate attempt.” By 5:30 pm, Dr. King and Ralph Abernathy dress for dinner. Because King’s skin is so sensitive, he “shaves” by using a homemade depilatory. He kids Kyles that his wife had better serve “real” soul food that evening. (“Not like at that preacher’s house. We went over there and had some ham. A ham bone.”). To his colleagues, he seems in a good mood. “This is like the old Movement days, isn’t it?” he asks Kyles, who slumps on the bed as the other two dress. “That first speech when I got here! When I got to the temple and saw all those people — you couldn’t have squeezed two more in if you tried. This really is the old Movement spirit.” Kyles remembers, “It was just preacher talk, like people talk baseball talk or barbershop talk.” He and Abernathy joke with King when he can’t button the tight collar on his shirt, so he pulls another one from his suitcase. By 5:45 pm, Solomon Jones waited in the Lorraine Motel courtyard with the white Cadillac loaned by R.S. Lewis and Sons Funeral Home. Ben Branch and Jesse Jackson are also in the courtyard, along with attorney Chauncey Eskridge and King aides Andrew Young, Hosea Williams, James Bevel, Bernard Lee, and James Orange. Other motel guests stand nearby, along with photographers Ernest Withers and Joseph Louw, and a reporter for The New York Times. At 5:50 pm, three police cars and a dozen officers return to Fire Station #2 after monitoring the daily march from Clayborn Temple to City Hall. Most of the men go inside to grab a cup of coffee and to take a break, while others mill about outside.
At 5:55 pm, Waiting for Abernathy, King steps out onto the balcony outside Room 306. Down in the parking lot, Jackson says to King, “Doc, this is Ben Branch. Ben used to live in Memphis. He plays in our band.” King leans over the railing to tell Branch he remembers him, but jokes that he can’t bring his whole band to the Kyles’ house, and comes back inside. Abernathy returns to his own room, next to King’s, to put on aftershave. At the fire station, a fireman, George Loenneke, asks policeman Richmond if he can look through the binoculars for a few minutes. He watches as King steps back onto the balcony outside Room 306 and talks to the people below. At 6 pm, King leans over the railing and tells Branch to “play ‘Precious Lord’ like you’ve never played it before.” Branch says, “Dr. King, you know I do that all the time.” King responds, “But tonight, especially for me. I want you to play it real pretty.” Branch says, “I will, Doc,” and tells him to put on an overcoat, since it might be chilly later. At 6:01 pm, Dr. King straightened up and begins to turn back towards his room to get a coat. He had been in Memphis 31 hours and 28 minutes. Then, at 6:01 pm, the murderer shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the world changed forever.
The Assassination and the Rebellions
On Thursday afternoon, on April 4, 1968, Dr. King was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel was owned by businessman Walter Bailey and was named after his wife. Reverend Ralph Abernathy, a colleague and friend, later told the House Select Committee on Assassinations that he and King had stayed in Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel so often that it was known as the "King–Abernathy Suite." According to biographer Taylor Branch, King's last words were to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at a planned event. King said, "Ben, make sure you play 'Take My Hand, Precious Lord' in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty." According to Rev. Samuel Kyles, who was standing several feet away, King was leaning over the balcony railing in front of Room 306 and was speaking with Rev. Jesse Jackson when the shot rang out. King was struck in the face at 6:01 p.m. by a single .30-06 bullet fired from a Remington Model 760 rifle. The bullet entered through King's right cheek, breaking his jaw and several vertebrae as it traveled down his spinal cord, severing his jugular vein and major arteries in the process, before lodging in his shoulder. The force of the shot ripped King's necktie off. King fell backward onto the balcony, unconscious. Abernathy heard the shot from inside the motel room and ran to the balcony to find King on the deck, bleeding profusely from the wound in his cheek. Jesse Jackson stated after the shooting that he cradled King's head as King lay on the balcony, but this account was disputed by other colleagues of King; Jackson later changed his statement to say that he had "reached out" for King. Andrew Young, a colleague from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, first believed King was dead, but found he still had a pulse. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where doctors opened his chest and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He never regained consciousness and died at 7:05 p.m. According to Branch, King's autopsy revealed that his heart was in the condition of a 60-year-old man rather than that of a 39-year-old such as King, which Branch attributed to the stress of King's 13 years in the civil rights movement. Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man fleeing from the room house across the street from the Lorraine motel (the federal government said that this person was James Earl Ray. Other people dispute this). Ray was renting a room in the boarding house.
Police found a package dumped close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both with Ray's fingerprints. Ray had purchased the rifle under an alias six days earlier. A worldwide manhunt was triggered that culminated in Ray's arrest at Heathrow Airport, London, two months later. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Martin Luther King Jr., which was later recanted. King's widow, Coretta, had difficulty informing her children that their father was dead. She received a large number of telegrams, including one from Lee Harvey Oswald's mother that she regarded as the one that had touched her the most. In the civil rights movement, many people though the strategy of nonviolence ended with the King assassination. Others didn't believe in that assumption and followed through with the Poor People's Campaign. Many black leaders wanted to continue Dr. King's work of promoting nonviolence. Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy gave a speech to prevent violence in Indianapolis. He gave his words as a means to show that Americans can come together after the tragedy of Dr. King's unjust assassination to promote solutions to problems involving racism, the war in Vietnam, divisions among age groups, etc. Robert Kennedy quoted the ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus the following words, "Even in our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."
Senator Robert F. Kennedy wanted people to send prayers to the King Family and improve the conditions of American society. The next day, Kennedy gave a prepared response, "On the Mindless Menace of Violence", in Cleveland, Ohio. That speech condemned violence and sought constructive avenues in establishing true social change in society in general. President Lyndon B. Johnson was in the Oval Office that evening, planning a meeting in Hawaii with Vietnam War military commanders. After press secretary George Christian informed him at 8:20 p.m. of the assassination, he canceled the trip to focus on the nation. He assigned Attorney General Ramsey Clark to investigate the assassination in Memphis. He made a personal call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and declared April 7 a National Day of Mourning on which the U.S. flag would be flown at half-staff. Racists like Maddox and Reagan disrespected Dr. King even after his assassination.
On April 8, King's widow Coretta Scott King and her four young children led a crowd estimated at 40,000 in a silent march through the streets of Memphis to honor King and support the cause of the city's black sanitation workers. Governor Lester Maddox of Georgia called King "an enemy of our country" and threatened to "personally raise" the state capitol flag back from half-staff. California Governor Ronald Reagan described the assassination as "a great tragedy that began when we began compromising with law and order and people started choosing which laws they'd break." South Carolina senator and hypocrite Strom Thurmond wrote to his constituents: "We are now witnessing the whirlwind sowed years ago when some preachers and teachers began telling people that each man could be his own judge in his own case."
Immediately after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the 1968 rebellions happened. These rebellions were unprecedented and so large, that it was the largest rebellions in American history, other than the American Civil War. Many civil rights leaders condemned the rebellion like James Farmer Jr. as in opposition to the dream of Dr. King. As Dr. King has said, destruction of innocent persons and innocent property have no justification, but these crimes are derivative crimes from the greater crimes done by a racist society that terrorizes black Americans for years and centuries in America alone.
Disturbances happened in New York City, but New York City mayor John Lindsay came into Harlem telling black residents that he regretted King's death and was working against poverty. He is credited for averting major riots in New York with this direct response although minor disturbances still erupted in the city. In Indianapolis, Indiana, Senator Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. is credited with preventing a riot there. In Boston, rioting may have been averted by a James Brown concert taking place on the night of April 5, with Brown, Mayor Kevin White, and City Councilor Tom Atkins speaking to the Garden crowd about peace and unity before the show.
In Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department and community activists averted a repeat of the 1965 riots that devastated portions of the city. Several memorials were held in tribute to King throughout the Los Angeles area on the days leading into his funeral service. Washington D.C. had a huge rebellion. 110 cities saw unrest in the world. In D.C., there was many jobs giving to American Americans by the early 20th century. Middle class African-American neighborhoods prospered. Despite the end of legally mandated racial segregation, the historic neighborhoods of Shaw, the H Street Northeast corridor, and Columbia Heights, centered at the intersection of 14th and U Streets Northwest, remained the centers of African-American commercial life in the city.
As word of King's murder in Memphis spread on the evening of Thursday, April 4, crowds began to gather at 14th and U. Kwame Ture led members of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) to stores in the neighborhood demanding that they close out of respect. Although polite at first, the crowd fell out of control and began breaking windows. By 11pm, widespread looting had begun. Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington ordered the damage cleaned up immediately the next morning. However, anger was still evident on Friday morning when Kwame Ture addressed a rally at Howard, warning of violence. After the close of the rally, crowds walking down 7th Street NW and in the H Street NE corridor came into violent confrontations with police. By midday, numerous buildings were on fire, and firefighters were prevented from responding by crowds attacking with bottles and rocks.
Crowds of as many as 20,000 overwhelmed the District's 3,100-member police force. So, 11,850 federal troops and 1,750 D.C. National Guardsmen under orders of President Lyndon B. Johnson arrived on the streets of D.C. to assist them. Marines mounted machine guns on the steps of the Capitol and Army soldiers from the 3rd Infantry guarded the White House. At one point, on April 5, rioting reached within two blocks of the White House before rioters retreated. The occupation of Washington was the largest of any American city since the Civil War. Mayor Washington imposed a curfew and banned the sale of alcohol and guns in the city. By the time the city was considered pacified on Sunday, April 8, some 1,200 buildings had been burned, including over 900 stores. Damages reached $27 million.
The riots utterly devastated Washington's inner-city economy. With the destruction or closing of businesses, thousands of jobs were lost, and insurance rates soared. Made uneasy by the violence, city residents of all races accelerated their departure for suburban areas, depressing property values. Crime in the burned out neighborhoods rose sharply, further discouraging investment. It would decades after 1968, and remains of the rebellion still remains.
On April 5, there was violence in the West Side of Chicago. It eventually expanded to consume a 28-block stretch of West Madison Street, with additional damage occurring on Roosevelt Road. The North Lawndale and East Garfield Park neighborhoods on the West Side and the Woodlawn neighborhood on the South Side experienced the majority of the destruction and chaos. The rioters broke windows, looted stores, and set buildings (both abandoned and occupied) on fire. Firefighters quickly flooded the neighborhood, and Chicago's off-duty firefighters were told to report for duty. There were 36 major fires reported between 4:00 pm and 10:00 pm alone. The next day, Mayor Richard J. Daley imposed a curfew on anyone under the age of 21, closed the streets to automobile traffic, and halted the sale of guns or ammunition.
Approximately 10,500 police were sent in, and by April 6, more than 6,700 Illinois National Guard troops had arrived in Chicago with 5,000 regular Army soldiers from the 1st Armored and 5th Infantry Divisions being ordered into the city by President Johnson. The General in charge declared that no one was allowed to have gatherings in the riot areas, and he authorized the use of tear gas. Daley gave police the authority "to shoot to kill any arsonist or anyone with a Molotov cocktail in his hand ... and ... to shoot to maim or cripple anyone looting any stores in our city."
By the time order was restored on April 7, 11 people had died, 500 had been injured, and 2,150 had been arrested. Over 200 buildings were damaged in the disturbance with damage costs running up to $10 million. The south side ghetto had escaped the major chaos mainly because the two large street gangs, the Blackstone Rangers and the East Side Disciples, cooperated to control their neighborhoods. Many gang members did not participate in the rioting, due in part to King's direct involvement with these groups in 1966.
There rebellion in Baltimore existed. Then the National Guard came to stop it. By Sunday evening, 5,000 paratroopers, combat engineers, and artillerymen from the XVIII Airborne Corps in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, specially trained in tactics, including sniper school, were on the streets of Baltimore with fixed bayonets, and equipped with chemical (CS) disperser backpacks. Two days later, they were joined by a Light Infantry Brigade from Fort Benning, Georgia. With all the police and troops on the streets, the situation began to calm down. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported that H. Rap Brown was in Baltimore driving a Ford Mustang with Broward County, Florida tags, and was assembling large groups of angry protesters and agitating them to escalate the rioting. In several instances, these disturbances were rapidly quelled through the use of bayonets and chemical dispersers by the XVIII Airborne units. That unit arrested more than 3,000 detainees, who were turned over to the Baltimore Police. A general curfew was set at 6 p.m. in the city limits and martial law was enforced. As rioting continued, African American plainclothes police officers and community leaders were sent to the worst areas to prevent further violence. By the end of the unrest, 6 people had died, 700 were injured, and 5,800 had been arrested; property damage was estimated at over $12 million. Spiro T. Agnew was the Governor of Maryland and falsely scapegoated black leaders for the situations. Nixon choose him to be Vice Presidential candidate. Violence existed in Kansas City, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Trenton, Wilmington (in Delaware when the National Guard occupied the city for 9.5 months), Louisville, and other places. Lyndon Johnson met with many leaders to cause peace. He met with Vice President Hubert Humphrey, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, and federal judge Leon Higginbotham; government officials such as Secretary Robert Weaver and D.C. Mayor Walter Washington; legislators Mike Mansfield, Everett Dirksen, William McCulloch; and civil rights leaders Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, Clarence Mitchell, Dorothy Height, and Walter Fauntroy. Notably absent were representatives of more militant groups such as SNCC and CORE. At the meeting, Mayor Washington asked President Johnson to deploy troops to the District of Columbia. Richard Hatcher, the newly elected black mayor of Gary, Indiana, spoke to the group about white racism and his fears of racially motivated violence in the future. Many of these leaders told Johnson that socially progressive legislation would be the best response to the crisis. The meeting concluded with prayers at the Washington National Cathedral. According to press secretary George Christian, Johnson was not surprised by the riots that followed: "What did you expect? I don't know why we're so surprised. When you put your foot on a man's neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what's he going to do? He's going to knock your block off." The Fair Housing Act of 1968 or the Civil Rights Act of 1968 was passed after the start of the rebellions. Washington, D.C. and other cities had decades of infrastructure damage.
After the 1968 rebellion, we see the political polarization that continues in our time. The far-right movement exploited those events to join the Republican Party and support Nixon, Reagan, and now Trump. There were white flight and more middle class and rich black people moving into the suburbs. There was a tendency to obsess with "law and order" by far-right extremists and moderates when we needed law and justice along with compassion to eliminate injustices. Deindustrialization and inflation from the Vietnam War crippled many urban areas. The roots of the modern-day culture wars existed from 1968. The Black Power movement including the Black Panthers reached their zenith during the aftermath of the 1968 rebellions. 55 years later, we have seen still massive reactionaries from the Proud Boys to the agenda of Ron DeSantis. Also, progressive movements for social change have existed in 2023 too. That is why human beings, among every color and background, are standing up for black lives, women, immigrants, and the rights of the human family.
The Funeral of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
There were two funeral services of Dr. King on April 9, 1968. The first memorial service took place on April 5, 1968, at the R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis, Tennessee. The 2 major funeral services took place afterwards. A state funeral or lying in state was refused to King by the racist then-governor of Georgia Lester Maddox, who had considered King an "enemy of the country" and had stationed 64 riot-helmeted state troopers at the steps of the state capitol in Atlanta to protect state property. This showed the revolting, racist character of Maddox. He also initially refused to allow the state flag to be lowered at half-staff but was compelled to do so when told that the lowering was a federal mandate. There were concerns that U.S. president Lyndon Johnson might be the subject of protests, over the conduct of the war in Vietnam, which would disrupt the funeral. Vice President Hubert Humphrey attended on his behalf. Coretta Scott King visited the funeral home at R.S. Lewis Funeral Home in Memphis. Robert F. Kennedy arranged Coretta Scott King to arrive in Memphis. Ralph Abernathy offered a prayer while tears came down from Andrew Young's face. Later that day, police and National Guardsmen escorted the long procession of cars which carried King's body to the airport for the flight to Atlanta.
The first, private service began at 10:30 a.m. EST at Ebenezer Baptist Church, and was filled with some 1,300 people; among the dignitaries present were labor leaders, foreign dignitaries, entertainment and sports figures and leaders from numerous religious faiths. The service began with Reverend Ralph Abernathy delivering a sermon which called the event "one of the darkest hours of mankind." At his widow's request, King eulogized himself: His last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church, a recording of his famous "Drum Major Instinct" sermon, given on February 4, 1968, was played at the funeral. In that sermon he makes a request that at his funeral no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said that he tried to "feed the hungry", "clothe the naked", "be right on the [Vietnam] war question", and "love and serve humanity." Per King's request, his good friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", though not as part of the morning funeral service but later that day at a second open-air service at Morehouse College. The private funeral was followed by the loading of King's casket onto a simple wooden farm wagon pulled by two mules named Belle and Ada from Gee's Bend.
The procession down the three-and-a-half miles from Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College was observed by over 100,000 people; the Southern Christian Leadership Conference commissioned a security detail to manage the crowd, while the Atlanta Police Department limited their participation to management of automobile traffic and to accompany dignitaries attending the events. The procession was silent, although it was accompanied on occasion by the singing of freedom songs which were frequently sung during the marches in which King had participated. Among the persons leading the procession, besides the immediate family of the civil rights leader, were Jesse Jackson, who held the flag of the United Nations, John Lewis, and Andrew Young the future mayor of Atlanta and ambassador to the United Nations. Labor leader and civil rights activist Walter Reuther also participated in King's funeral procession. The procession passed by the Georgia State Capitol building.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, the group sang "We Shall Overcome." The public and final service was held at Morehouse College, where King was eulogized by college president Benjamin Mays, who had given the benediction after King's "I Have a Dream" speech. Benjamin Mays was a civil rights activist and a friend to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. too.
Following the funeral, King's casket was loaded into a hearse for his final trip to the South-View Cemetery, a burial place predominantly reserved for African Americans. His remains were exhumed in 1970 and reburied at their current location at the plaza between the King Center and Ebenezer, and his widow Coretta was buried next to him in 2006.
James Earl Ray?
James Earl Ray has been classified by the FBI as the sole gunman in assassinating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He lived from March 10, 1928, to April 23, 1998. There is debate on who this man was. He was born in Alton, Illinois. He had Irish, Scottish, and Welsh ancestry. His family lived in Ewing, Missouri, James Earl Ray joined the U.S. Army and was discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability in 1948. What we all agree is that James Earl Ray was a criminal. He committed tons of crimes before 1968. Ray's first conviction for criminal activity, a burglary in California, came in 1949. In 1952, he served two years for the armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri. For this, he was imprisoned for four years in the federal United States Penitentiary Leavenworth. In 1959, he was caught stealing $120 in an armed robbery of a Kroger store in St. Louis. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. He escaped from prison multiple times. He moved into Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Birmingham, Alabama too. James Earl Ray was a racist who supported the 1968 George Wallace Presidential campaign in 1968. He agreed with Wallace's segregationist platform. He considered going into the support the racist government of Rhodesia (now, it's Zimbabwe). On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. On March 18, 1968, Ray left Los Angeles and began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia.
Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house. He bought a map of the city. FBI agents later found this map when they searched the room in which he was staying. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were circled. Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. There, on March 30, 1968, he bought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box of 20 cartridges from the Aeromarine Supply Company. He also bought a Redfield 2x-7x scope, which he had mounted to the rifle. He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. Ray had continued using the Galt alias after his stint in Mexico, but when he made this purchase, he gave his name as Harvey Lowmeyer.
After purchasing the rifle and accessories, Ray drove back to Atlanta. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading The Atlanta Constitution. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for 1st April, 1968. On 2nd April, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis. The FBI said that Ray killed Dr. King near the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Many scholars agreed with this conclusion. Other scholars believe that Dr. King was assassinated as a product of a conspiracy. James Ray Earl fled to Atlanta, then Toronto, and he was in London. He went to Lisbon, Porgutal and return to London.
Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. He was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa using the falsified Canadian passport. At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport, Sneyd, was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. Airport officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday, and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Three days later, Ray recanted his confession. He had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, to avoid the sentence of death by electrocution, which would have been a possible outcome of a jury trial. Unbeknownst to Ray, however, a death sentence would have been commuted as unconstitutional under the de facto moratorium in place since 1967 and following Furman v. Georgia. " Ray began claiming that a man he had met in Montreal back in 1967, who used the alias "Raoul", had been involved in the assassination, and he asserted that he did not "personally shoot Dr. King" but may have been "partially responsible without knowing it", hinting at a conspiracy. Ray told this version of the assassination and his flight during the following two months to journalist William Bradford Huie. Huie investigated this story and discovered that Ray lied about some details. Ray told Huie that he purposely left the rifle with his fingerprints on it in plain sight at the crime scene because he wanted to become a famous criminal. He was convinced that he would escape capture because of his intelligence and cunning, and he also believed that Governor of Alabama George Wallace would soon be elected to the presidency, so that Ray would only be confined in prison for a short time, pending a presidential pardon by Wallace. However, Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a jury trial. Ray escaped prison again on June 10, 1977, along with six other convicts from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. They were recaptured on June 13. A year was added to Ray's previous sentence, increasing it to a full century. Gerald Posner believed that Dr. King was murdered by James Earl Ray. Many in Dr. Martin Luther King's family disagree with that view and believe that a government conspiracy ultimately ended Dr. King's life.
In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) concluded that there was a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of King and that Ray was a scapegoat. One author who believes that the assassination was a conspiracy is William F. Pepper, who has been a friend of Dr. King and his family. William Pepper would spend his later life trying to get Ray released from prison. The SCLC praised Pepper for his work. In June 1997, Pepper appeared on ABC's Turning Point. He discussed the theory from his book Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King Jr. This theory held that a hit team from the 20th Special Forces Group was to kill King if a police sharpshooter failed. This group was supposedly led by a man named Billy Eidson, whom Pepper claimed had since been killed in a cover up. Eidson was then brought on camera and refused to shake Pepper's hand. Eidson brought a $15 million lawsuit against Pepper's publisher which was later settled for an undisclosed amount. Mark Lane has been famous for believing that JFK, RFK, and Dr. King were killed in a conspiracy too. He is an author of Murder in Memphis with Dick Gregory. The book promoted this view. The book was right that the Central Intelligence Agency used a code named for Dr. King named Zorro. The FBI's original tests on the bullet that killed King and the .30-06 hunting rifle were inconclusive. In 1997, tests were run comparing 12 test bullets from the alleged murder rifle, and the bullet that killed MLK. Ballistics expert Robert Hathaway testified that the killing bullet lacked reference points found on the fired test bullets. The unique barrel markings could not be found on the killing bullet. To this very day, the FBI believes that James Earl Ray did the assassination alone.
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. In 1979, their final report concluded that "After examining Ray's behaviour, his character and his racial attitudes... The committee found it could not concur with any of the accepted explanations for Ray as a lone assassin," the “predominant motive lay in an expectation of monetary gain” and that "The committee concluded that there was a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of Dr King." They asserted that it was most likely a conspiracy by southern white supremacist groups, and that Ray was only acting due to a bounty on King's head. They also noted that “No federal, state or local government agency was involved in the assassination of Dr King.”
The Historic 1999 Court Decision
In 1999, a multiracial jury at a Memphis civil suit reached a unanimous verdict that King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, a person named Raoul, among others. After the verdict, Coretta King said: "There is abundant evidence of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband." The jury found the mafia and various local, state, and federal government agencies were "deeply involved in the assassination. ... Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame." In 1999, civil trial King v. Jowers mentioned that former Memphis PD officer Loyd Jowers had been complicit in a conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King. In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC’s Prime Time Live confessing to his participation in Dr. King’s assassination. Jowers admitted he believed MPD Lt. Earl Clark fired the shot that killed Dr. King, not James Earl Ray. Although the U.S. government claims that Jowers fabricated his allegations, but the U.S. government is guilty of trying to ruin Dr. King's reputation and the civil rights movement with their actions and infiltrations.
What we do know is that the federal government is guilty of illegally monitoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his allies throughout the 1960's in programs like Operation COINTELPRO and other actions. King had long found enemies among the nation's top body of law enforcement, the FBI. J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI, pronounced him, "the most notorious liar in the country." King had been under FBI surveillance since the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1956. They began wiretapping his phones in 1963. King expressed his anger towards the FBI in 1964, declaring that it was "completely ineffectual in resolving the continued mayhem and brutality inflicted upon the Negro in the deep South." On November 1, 1971, former head of FBI Intelligence Operations William C. Sullivan testified before the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities. He stated that in the "war" against King "no holds were barred." An internal FBI document expressed concern that this might raise the suspicion of FBI involvement in the assassination.
After four weeks of testimony and over 70 witnesses in a civil trial in Memphis, Tennessee, twelve jurors reached a swift unanimous verdict on December 8, 1999 that Dr. King was assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the NY Times reported at the time. The King family, who filed the civil suit, was awarded $100.
The FBI made the old slander that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Communist or Communist sympathizer. In 1962, Hoover told then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy that King was "a secret member of the Communist Party", which led Kennedy to approve wiretaps. The truth is that Dr. King publicly and privately disagreed with Communism because of what he called its ethical materialism and politically totalitarianism. This is what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said about Communism:
"...All of this is contrary, not only to the Christian doctrine of God, but also to the Christian estimate of man. Christianity insists that man is an end because he is a child of God, made in God's image. Man is more than a producing animal guided by economic forces; he is a being of spirit, crowned with glory and honor, endowed with the gift of freedom. The ultimate weakness of Communism is that it robs man of that quality which makes him man. Man, says Paul Tillich, is man because he is free. This freedom is expressed through man's capacity to deliberate, decide, and respond. Under Communism, the individual soul is shackled by the chains of conformity; his spirit is bound by the manacles of party allegiance. He is stripped of both conscience and reason. The trouble with Communism is that it has neither a theology nor a Christology; therefore it emerges with a mixed-up anthropology. Confused about God, it is also confused about man. In spite of its glowing talk about the welfare of the masses, Communism's methods and philosophy strip man of his dignity and worth, leaving him as little more than a depersonalized cog in the ever-turning wheel of the state..." ("How Should A Christian View Communism?" by Martin Luther King, Jr.).
Dr. King did express sympathy with democratic socialism, and he criticized capitalism in the following quotations:
"I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic... [Capitalism] started out with a noble and high motive... but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has out-lived its usefulness."
- Letter to Coretta Scott, July 18, 1952.
"And one day we must ask the question, 'Why are there forty million poor people in America? And when you begin to ask that question, you are raising questions about the economic system, about a broader distribution of wealth.' When you ask that question, you begin to question the capitalistic economy. And I'm simply saying that more and more, we've got to begin to ask questions about the whole society..."
-Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
"Capitalism forgets that life is social. And the kingdom of brotherhood is found neither in the thesis of communism nor the antithesis of capitalism, but in a higher synthesis."
-Speech to Southern Christian Leadership Conference Atlanta, Georgia, August 16, 1967.
"Call it democracy, or call it democratic socialism, but there must be a better distribution of wealth within this country for all God's children."
- Speech to the Negro American Labor Council, 1961.
"The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism."
-Speech to SCLC Board, March 30, 1967.
"You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry. Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong with capitalism."
- Speech to his staff, 1966.
"[W]e are saying that something is wrong ... with capitalism.... There must be better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."
- Speech to his staff, 1966.
We know that the MPD (the Memphis Police Department) spied on Dr. King and his civil rights leaders, and they infiltrated the Invaders group. The FBI infiltrated the Memphis Police Department with five paid informants. It is important for you (the viewers) to look at all the evidence and make up your own mind. One thing is true. The federal government is complicit in illegally harassing, slandering, and spying on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (including other black civil rights leaders), and that toxic atmosphere heavily contributed to the assassination of Dr. King on April 4, 1968.
Epilogue
The 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the worst tragedies in human history. Jealousy and racial hatred caused Dr. King's death. Yet, his legacy lives on in our time 55 years later. Dr. King changed from 1955 when he worked in the Montgomery Bus Boycott movement. He became more revolutionary by 1968 by opposing the Vietnam War, promoting a radical redistribution of economic and political power, supporting the rights of workers, opposing imperialism, and supporting supporters of human justice. Like all of us human beings, we are made up of flesh and blood. We are not perfect, and Dr. King wasn't perfect. Yet, even Dr. King would inspire us to be better people despite our imperfections as we have one life to live. As long as you have breathe, you can improve your life in vivid, inspiring ways. Constantly, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke eloquent, inspirational speeches to men, women, and children to speak up against injustice, to hold dear to the concept of integrity, and to follow the Golden Rule fully in advancing the cause of civil rights and human equality. By 1968, the federal government was constantly illegally harassing Dr. King and his allies worldwide via COINTELPRO and other secret programs.
Dr. King by 1968 was hated by a large percentage of the American public who opposed his opposition to the Vietnam War and his advocacy of the progressive Poor People's Campaign. Many young people back then falsely believed that his views on nonviolence were outdated. In retrospect, Dr. King's views were much more progressive and revolutionary than his critics. Dr. King was much more progressive and heroic than many who claimed to be in favor of Black Power. For example, Dr. King spoke up in favor of black self-determination, he called for a Marshall Plan to rebuild the Middle East, he supported African independence in Ghana and in Nigeria, he agreed to reparations for African Americans, and he criticized capitalism in word plus in his speeches (in favor of democratic socialism). Therefore, Dr. King was courageous and idealistic in his life story. His wife, Coretta Scott King, took on the torch along with his relatives plus friends to believe in the Dream. The Dream is not some fictional plan. The Dream is a real, authentic goal meant for all inhabitants of the Universe. The point of life is to love, build constructively, and helping others. We are born to fulfill that mission, and be a light of freedom for future, subsequent generations. Like always, we believe in black liberation fully as Black is always glorious and Beautiful.
By Timothy
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