Martin Luther King Jr – the Assassination of a Civil Rights Leader
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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 he where this would prove to be a grave mistake on April 4.
One could easily see that changing Kings 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 Kings 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. He thought about his mother who was a schoolteacher who taught him how to read before he went to school, and he also thought about his brother and sister Alfred Christine. He thought about when he was in school and how easy everything came to him. He was an excellent student in school; he skipped grades in both elementary school and high school. He enjoyed reading books, singing, riding a bicycle, and playing football and baseball. He entered Morehouse College in Atlanta, when he was only 15 years old, where he experienced racism early in life. He decided to do to something to make the world a better and fairer place. He though about the decision he made to dedicate his life to raise awareness about racism, and if it had been the right one. Then he started to remember all the he had accomplished in his life, all the lives him had affected, and he thought to himself “Yes, it was the right one.?and he was at peace with himself, he wasnt angry at who ever had done this to him he just felt sorry for the individual.
As soon as King fell, an aide, believed to be Marrell McCullough, pointed to the bathroom window of Bessie Brewers