Analysis Of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Mountaintop Speech

1908 Words4 Pages

April 3, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his Mountaintop speech, “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. … 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 at 7:04 pm, Martin Luther King Jr. was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital. King was one of the most influential and important men of his time because his extensive work in civil rights had gone to Memphis to aid in the Sanitation Workers Strike. The dangers were known to King, an idea that is mentioned in his last speech, as King finishes off he says that he is not concerned about living a long …show more content…

First of all, there is the theory of government involvement in the assassination. A trial held thirty years after King’s death found that bar owner, Loyd Jowers and “others, including government agencies”, had been involved in the assassination. The trial awarded the King family with one-hundred dollars. The idea that the government had been a part of the assassination had originated from secondhand information and information travelling between people. The trail became vague as numerous levels and branches of the government were investigated. A concluding thought of who had been involved and what the accused had planned or done was never fully or clearly stated. This rules out the conspiracy of government involvement in killing King. Next, there is the conspiracy of the man in the bushes with a second gun, a conspiracy brought forward by the local bar owner Loyd Jowers. Jowers made claims that there was, in fact, a second gun given to him, but has completely contradicted himself by also claiming that he saw no other gun. This conspiracy has been proved highly improbable as there were no witnesses and relies solely on the changing statements given by Jowers. With another theory removed, one concerning the location of the shooter, more suspicion is put on Ray. One of the last major conspiracies was the mysterious man called Raoul. This name was mentioned various times, by different people, but mainly by Ray. Raoul was supposedly from Canada and was, according to Ray, the man who instructed Ray to kill King and exactly how he should carry it out. Investigations on Raoul found that not a single person had seen Ray travelling or making contact with the mystery man. This theory becomes another point against Ray as he attempts to blame the murder on a nonexistent man,

Open Document