It was within our borders that the assassination of Martin Luther King took place, on April 4, 1968. You should learn what happened that week.

King was here to show support for Memphis sanitation workers who had gone on strike a couple of months earlier. (Most, but not all, of those workers were black.) The strike started in February (which meant that trash collection stopped in February). By late March it and the reaction to it had led to riots and the occupation of the city by 4,000 National Guardsmen.

These were tense times. On the night of April 3, King made his famous speech at Mason Temple in Memphis, predicting that “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.” The next day, while he was standing on the balcony of the hotel, he was shot and killed by James Earl Ray. King’s assassination led to riots all over the United States, and in the wake of his death the city of Memphis (under pressure from President Lyndon Johnson) began working with the sanitation workers' labor union.

The Lorraine Motel, where King was killed, is today the National Civil Rights Museum. Click here to learn more about this place.