On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. He had been in the state to support a sanitation workers' strike.
By that time, King was already a legendary figure, a man at the forefront of the civil rights movement, which began with the Montgomery boycott in 1955. Throughout the ensuing years, he led a series of nonviolent protests against discrimination and became at the forefront of the civil rights. Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and donated the prize money of $54,123 to the movement he helped to spawn, the National Constitution Center (via YAHOO) reported. The next year, the Voting Rights Act was extended to blacks throughout America.
On April 3, the day before he was killed, Dr. King spoke at the Bishop Charles Mason Temple where he spoke the night before to support a movement seeking better compensation for black sanitary workers.
The speech was known for its conclusion, which became a harbinger for things to come:
"I don't know what will happen now; we've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. 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. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And 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. And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."
Dr. King was killed the following evening at 6:05 p.m. while standing outside the Lorraine Motel second room's balcony in Memphis.
A year earlier, King told an audience on April 4, 1967, at a New York City church that he was against the war overseas.
"We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem," he said.
John Lewis, the U.S. Representative for Georgia's 5th Congressional District, and was also one of the "Big Six" leaders in the civil rights movement and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, playing a key role in the struggle to end legalized racial discrimination and segreagation feels as though Dr. King's impact is felt strongly today.
"He told us how to stand up and how to fight. I remember him saying on one occasion, soul-from the depth of his soul that you could stand up and not bend your back. When you stand up straight, no man, no person can ride on your back."
