Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Prize winner and a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, is assassinated at 39 in 1968
New York Daily News
New York Daily News published this on April 5, 1968.
New York Daily News published this on April 5, 1968. Enlarge 
New York Daily News published this on April 5, 1968. Enlarge
New York Daily News published this on April 5, 1968.
(Originally published by the Daily News on April 5, 1968.)
MEMPHIS, April 4 — The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., America’s foremost exponent of nonviolence in the struggle for civil rights, was struck down by an assassin’s bullet tonight as he stood on the balcony of his motel here.
King, a 39-year-old Nobel Prize winner, died an hour after he was hit in the neck shortly after 6 p.m. by a single bullet from a Browning automatic rifle fitted with a telescopic sight.
Police Director Frank Holloman and Sheriff William Morris said the single bullet that killed King was fired from a second-story window of a flophouse 50 to 100 yards from King’s motel.
They said the window faced the balcony where King was standing when the slayer fired. “He got a straight shot,” Morris said.
“We feel the assassin crouched in a second floor window, sighted through some trees and fired the shot that killed Mr. King,” he added.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands with other civil rights leaders on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated.
Reports tentatively described the slayer as a young white man dressed in dark clothing. Two white youths arrested immediately following the shooting were later released by police.
A state of emergency was declared throughout the city. Most public places and all liquor stores were ordered closed and Mayor Henry Loeb clamped on a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
Tennessee Gov. Buford Ellington ordered 4,000 National Guard troops into the city amid rising tension.
Nevertheless, disorders flared. Two policemen were reported injured. Three hours after King’s death, police reported looting as guardsmen rushed in to help restore order.
King had returned to Memphis yesterday to try and prove he could lead a massive march peacefully. He was at the head of the march here last Thursday that left one dead, 62 injured and 276 under arrest. The avowed aim of the demonstrations was to back Memphis’ 1,800 striking sanitation workers, most of whom are [African-Americans], in their work stoppage for pay raises and the right to union representation.
He had planned the second march for Monday, and Federal District Judge Bailey Brown was scheduled to rule tomorrow whether he would allow King to lead the demonstration. Brown issued a temporary injunction yesterday banning any march for 10 days.
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