Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 57 years ago: What to know about life, legacy
Jordan Green- Civil Rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
- King was a tireless advocate for equality and is best known for his message of peaceful resistance in the face of injustice.
- Although President Trump ordered the declassification of files related to King's assassination in January, they have yet to be released to the public.
Fifty-seven years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Downtown Memphis.
The minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference led the Civil Rights movement from the mid-1950s through the 1960s until his untimely death. During the movement for equality among all people in the United States, King preached a message of peace in the face of adversity.
While visiting Memphis to support a workers' strike, King was shot and killed outside of his hotel room on Thursday, April 4, 1968.
Where was MLK born?
King was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 15, 1929. He was the eldest son and the second of four children in his family.
In 1944, he attended Morehouse College and earned a sociology degree. Later, King received a divinity degree and earned his doctorate in philosophy from Boston University.
After earning his education, King returned to the South and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, to work as a pastor. Shortly after his arrival, Rosa Parks would make history when she refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.
King would go on to enter the field of activism and fight for equal rights for all races in the 1950s. Later, in 1964, King earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts towards achieving equality.
During his short career, King lead marches across the South, organized boycotts and protests, was arrested and stood beside President Lyndon B. Johnson when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed.
What happened to Martin Luther King Jr.?
In 1968, King and other Southern Christian Leadership Conference members were called to Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike.
On April 3, he gave a speech at the Mason Temple Church and was killed the next day.
At 6:05 p.m., King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel, where he was staying in the city. While on the balcony, King was rushed to the hospital after being struck in the neck by a bullet from a sniper. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead shortly after the shooting.
Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.?
James Earl Ray was convicted of King's murder in 1969 after entering a guilty plea where he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Ray was born in Alton, Illinois, in 1928 and died in Nashville in 1998. Ray served time in prison in Illinois and Missouri during his early adult years and he escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary on April 23, 1967. Less than a year later, he shot and killed King Jr. in Memphis.
After he shot King, Ray fled to Toronto, where he secured a Canadian passport and then fled from London to Lisbon. Ray traveled back to London, where he was apprehended by police at Heathrow Airport and brought back to the United States.
Have the files about MLK Jr.'s assassination been declassified?
On Jan. 23, just three days into his second term, President Trump signed an Executive Order that requested the declassification of the records concerning the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Since then, the files regarding JFK's assassination have been publicized, but there has been no word on when the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General will release RFK's or King's records.