MLK Assassination
Facts for kids
The following fact
sheet contains interesting facts and information on MLK Assassination.
MLK Assassination
Facts for kids
MLK Assassination
Facts - 1: Martin Luther
King, Jr. received his doctorate degree in theology in
late 1955, and moved to Montgomery, Alabama, with his
wife, Coretta Scott King, to preach at a Baptist church.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
2: In 1955 Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. became the president of the Montgomery
Improvement Association which was established following protests against the incident involving Rosa Parks
which began the
Montgomery Bus Boycott.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 3: In 1957
MLK became president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) which aimed
at eliminating the practice of segregation and to encourage African
Americans to exercise their Civil Rights and register to vote.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 4: Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. became a leader of the Civil Rights
movement and supported peaceful demonstrations such as the
lunch counter sit-ins that started in Greensboro, N.C.
and went on to support the protests of the 1961
Freedom Riders to desegregate education and
transport facilities.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 5: In the spring of 1963 MLK led
Civil Rights protests in Birmingham, the most thoroughly segregated
city in the United States. The protests of the Birmingham Campaign
led to the arrest of MLK on April 12, 1963 for violating an
anti-protest injunction against mass public demonstrations. During
his imprisonment he wrote his
Letter from Birmingham Jail.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 6: MLK
went on to achieve world wide fame and
recognition for his emotive "I have a dream" speech at
the March on Washington
for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 7: He was
instrumental in bringing about great changes in Civil
Rights legislation when he met with President Kennedy
who gave his full support to the civil rights movement
and subsequently sent a comprehensive civil rights bill
to Congress on June 19, 1963 banning segregation and
discrimination based on race, nationality, or gender.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 8: The world was
shocked when President Kennedy was assassinated in
Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963 - refer to the
JFK Assassination.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
9: President Lyndon
B. Johnson approved of the Kennedy civil rights bill and
played a major role in supporting the
Civil Rights Act of
1964 which was signed into law on July 2, 1964.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
10: In 1964, MLK was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for leading non-violent
demonstrations.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 11: The Civil Rights
Movement had gained significant victories but the
organization had become fragmented into different
organizations as many
young black Americans became impatient with the
non-violent protests of Dr. Martin Luther King and began
to support the idea of
Black Power.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
12: MLK denounced the militant Black
Power movement and their the revolutionary message but young African Americans became increasingly interested
in the black-only religion and organization known as the
Nation of Islam.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 13: Malcolm X,
like many other Civil Rights activists, were inspired by the beliefs
of Elijah Muhammad and joined the Nation of Islam.
Malcolm X broke with the Black Muslims and the nation was again
shocked at another murder when Malcolm X was assassinated on
February 21, 1965 by Nation of Islam members.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 14: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
continued with his peaceful protests and led the
Selma
March on 25 March 1965
which directly resulted in the
Voting Rights Act of 1965
passing into law less than five months following the protest march.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 15:
Between August 11, 1965 - August 17, 1965 the nation
reeled at the Watts Riots in Los Angeles
that resulted in 34 deaths, over 1,000 injuries, the destruction of
property valued at $40 million and nearly 4,000 arrests.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 16:
During the 1960's the
Ku Klux
Klan
had re-emerged
in opposition to the Civil Rights movement. White
supremacists were infuriated
by the race riots and organizations such as the
Black Panthers who
advocated the strategy of violent revolution by African
Americans.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 17: Throughout the
history of the United States, race had been used by
whites for legitimizing social, economic and political
exclusion.
The white supremacists attracted new members to their
organizations in the 1960's and their aims, supported
and given credence by prominent political leaders in the
southern states, appealed to
men like James Earl Ray.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 17: James Earl Ray was
particularly interested in the George Wallace
presidential campaign in which Wallace supported "law
and order" and racial segregation.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 18: James Earl Ray was a small-time
criminal and confirmed racist. He was born on March 10,
1928, Alton, Illinois and spent his life as a petty
criminal and drifter.
MLK Assassination
Facts - 19 In April 1967,
James Earl Ray escaped from Missouri State Prison, where
he was serving 20 years for armed robbery. He traveled
around cities as Los Angeles, Chicago, Birmingham and
Atlanta.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
20: A year later, on
the afternoon of April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray posing as
John Willard, rented a room at a Memphis rooming house
near the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. was staying.
MLK Assassination
Facts for kids
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MLK Assassination
Facts for kids
MLK Assassination
Facts -
21: Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr, had traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to lead a
march in support of striking sanitation workers. During
this time MLK was planning a national “Poor People’s
Campaign” to promote economic advancement for all
impoverished Americans.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
22: MLK, and his party
were staying at the Lorraine Motel, near the waterfront
area of Memphis, Tennessee. He was sharing room 306 with
his associate, Reverand Ralph Abernathy.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
23: The night before
his assassination, on April 3, 1968, MLK had told a
church gathering "I’ve been to the mountaintop...I’ve
looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. 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." Some say
this was a premonition of his death.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
24: On the evening of
April 4, 1968, MLK was standing on the balcony of his
room. At 6:01 p.m. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr was struck
by a bullet shot by a sniper and was mortally wounded.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
25: Dr. King was taken to St. Joseph
Hospital where he was pronounced dead. His body was
taken to Gaston Hospital, where an autopsy was performed
by Dr. Jerry T. Francisco, the Shelby County medical
examiner.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
26: Dr. Francisco's
report on the autopsy concluded that Dr. King's death
was the result of a single "gunshot wound to the chin
and neck with a total transaction of the lower cervical
and upper thoracic spinal cord and other structures of
the neck.".
MLK Assassination
Facts -
27: The assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr, shocked and horrified the world. The
country went into national mourning and riots broke out
in more than 100 cities.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
28: Shortly after the
fatal shot had been fired, witnesses saw a man believed
to be James Earl Ray fleeing from a rooming house across
the street from the Lorraine Motel.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
29: It transpired that
James Earl Ray headed for Toronto in Canada, where he
hid out for over a month and acquired a Canadian
passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd and
made his way to London.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
30: James Earl Ray was
arrested at London's Heathrow Airport on June 8, 1968
and was extradited to the United States.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
31: James Earl Ray was
convicted of the assassination of Martin Luther King,
Jr. on March 10, 1969. On the advice of his lawyer he
entered a plea of guilty in order to forgo a jury trial
to avoid being eligible for the death penalty. He was
sentenced to 99 years in jail.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
32: Three days later, on March 13, 1969,
James Earl Ray recanted his confession.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
33: He escaped from
Brushy Mountain State Prison with five other inmates on
June 10, 1977, but was quickly recaptured on June 13,
1977.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
34: On August 16, 1978
James Earl Ray testified before the Select Committee on
Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. On
December 30, 1978 the committee concluded that Ray acted
alone but there was circumstantial evidence of a
conspiracy.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
35: Jesse Jackson and
James Lawson meet with Ray and his attorney, Mark Lane
on August 10, 1979 and concluded that they did not
believe that James Earl Ray had killed Martin Luther
King, Jr.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
36: In 1997, MKK's son
Dexter met with Ray and the King family supported Ray's
effort to get a new trial.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
37: James Earl Ray
died from cirrhosis of the liver at the Columbia
Nashville Memorial Hospital on April 23, 1998, at the
age of 70.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
38: In the 1980's Dr.
King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, together with
congressional leaders and citizens petitioned the
President to make January 15, Martin Luther King Jr.’s
birthday, a legal holiday.
MLK Assassination
Facts -
39: In 1986, President
Ronald Reagan declared the third Monday in January a
federal holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The Martin Luther King day is the only federal holiday
to commemorate the life and achievements of an
African-American.
MLK
Assassination Facts - 40: The assassination
of Martin Luther King Jr. marked the end of the Civil
Rights movement but under his leadership it had
transformed American society.
MLK Assassination
Facts for kids
MLK Assassination -
April 16, 1963
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Interesting Facts about MLK Assassination for kids
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Summary of the MLK Assassination in US history
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The MLK Assassination, a major
event in US history
● James Earl Ray and the
MLK Assassination
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Fast, fun facts about the MLK Assassination
● James Earl Ray and the
MLK Assassination
● Martin Luther King Jr. and the
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