The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr

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Local newspapers mocked King when he announced he was coming back to Memphis for a second round. Among other snipes and barbs, the local press criticized him for staying at a white-owned Holiday Inn, instead of the Motel Lorraine, which was black-owned. (The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: An Overview by: Charles Overbeck pg 2)

Hoping to avoid further antagonistic press in wake of the disastrous March 28 demonstration, Not wanting to add to all the hatred that filled the air King switched his accommodations to a room at the Motel Lorraine, where this would prove to be a grave mistake on April 4.

One could easily see that changing King's lodging to this particular motel was a bad mistake. The Motel Lorraine was located in a fairly seedy part of town. The day before King arrived, someone claiming to be an advance security man dropped by the Lorraine Hotel and changed King's reservation from a ground-floor room to a second-floor balcony room, saying, "Dr. King always likes to have a room on the second floor overlooking the swimming pool." The new room was in the rear of the building, the balcony wide open to sniper fire with no cover whatsoever, and James Earl Ray the man who took great care and secrecy in planning all the events that would take place on April 4, had easy access to his target. “At 6:01 p.m., on April 4, 1968, King stepped out of his motel room on his way to get dinner.?(Charles Overbeck) He was looking forward to have a good meal, because he had not been able to eat a good meal in a while in fear of all that was going on. He leaned over the railing to speak to his chauffeur. A moment later, a single shot from a high-powered rifle blasted out, and King fell to the concrete balcony, where he lay dying. As Martin Luther King Jr. laid on the balcony his life slipping away he remembered all that he had accomplished through his life, and what he could have still done for human rights.

“Life was so much more simple living back home in Atlanta.?He though as he lay on the cold cement of the balcony he struggled for his life and in the midst of all his pain he felt the all the hatred being lifted form him, and he though about his life.

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