Martin Luther King assassination

The assassination of civil rights leader and clergyman Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, rocked the nation just as the charismatic and focused activist was rising to heights unknown.

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., remains one of the most highly investigated and second-guessed murders of our time. While James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to killing the civil rights leader and was sentenced to life in prison, Coretta Scott King and other members of his inner circle had suggested that Dr. King was a “victim of conspiracy.”

Seneca Scott, a cousin of Coretta Scott King, added to criticism of a new sculpture by saying MLK "was assassinated by the U.S. government."

NewsOne spoke with National Civil Rights Museum President Terri Freeman about the institution's dedication to preserving King's work through programming, the role Memphis plays in his incredible journey and what he may have thought about the current social justice climate in today's society.

A veritable who's who in Black excellence attended, spoke or did both at the events in Memphis commemorating the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination on April 4.

Decades after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, we still recall the fateful words of his last public speech the day before. Delivered in Memphis, Tenn. in support of striking sanitation workers there, his address is popularly known as “The Mountaintop Speech” for these famous closing lines: “We’ve got […]