April in Memphis

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. 

Finally today, the WORLD History Book.

This weekend marked the anniversary of the date that Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The tragic end to his life marked a change in the civil rights movement. And nearly six decades later, some still wonder if justice was served.

WORLD’s Mary Muncy reports.

MARY MUNCY: In 1968, Reverend Samuel “Billy” Kyles was standing on a balcony in Memphis with Martin Luther King, Jr. when he heard a shot.

SAMUEL “BILLY” KYLES: I thought there was a firecracker, but I didn’t see him. And my first reaction was that he’s clowning again, see? He’s feigning like he’s been shot.

He spoke with CNN in 2011.

KYLES: And then I saw his shoes sticking out from under the railing.

POLICE RADIO: We have information that King has been shot at the Lorraine.

When police arrived, they asked where the shot came from, and everybody pointed to the hotel across the street.

On the way to the scene, Memphis Police Captain Jewel Ray saw a bundle on the street by the hotel. People in the record store nearby told Ray…

RAY: They told him that a white fellow had dropped it there and then had gotten in a white mustang and drove off.

There was a rifle, a case, and underwear wrapped in a green bedspread. When Ray made it to the hotel, he saw the screen knocked out of a bathroom window with a clear line of sight to King’s balcony. He radioed the other officers:

POLICE RADIO: Information we have on the subject, he’s a young white male, well dressed. Possible in a late model style white mustang.

It was too late. The shooter escaped.

That night, cities across the country erupted into riots. Some of them turned violent.

President Lyndon B. Johnson addressed the nation.

LYNDON JOHNSON: America is shocked and saddened by the brutal slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King. I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King, who lived by non-violence.

More than 150,000 people gathered in Atlanta for King’s funeral. They packed King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, and filled the streets outside.

FUNERAL: Fear though not for I am with thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God.

In the investigation, police dusted the rifle and the room near the common bathroom for prints and matched them to escaped convict, James Earl Ray. They also found a radio with his prisoner number on it, and a newspaper showing King’s schedule.

Police searched for Ray for two months before they found him at Heathrow Airport in London. 

Ray confessed to everything and pleaded guilty, but he recanted just three days later. Saying a man named “Raoul” had framed him. The courts never gave that much weight… and sentenced him to 99 years in prison. He didn’t get a trial because of his guilty plea.

But King’s son Dexter and some others believe that there was a larger conspiracy at play and that Ray is innocent.

In 1997, Dexter met with Ray. NBC published the conversation:

DEXTER KING: I believe you, and my family believes you, and we are going to do everything in our power to try and make sure that justice will prevail.

Some people believe that federal agencies like the CIA and FBI conspired to kill King because he had too much political power. They say “Raoul” coordinated the attack and lured a vulnerable Ray to be the fall guy.

But neither King’s death nor the lingering questions over culpability have quelled his legacy.

TAYLOR BRANCH: By the time he was killed, the whole future of the United States had changed as a result of the civil rights movement.

Taylor Branch is a historian who wrote a book on King’s life. Branch says King was born in a world where black people were invisible, and although that frustrated him deeply, he always called for non-violent action.

BRANCH: His message was that race relations in the United States have been governed by violence, you know, slavery was purely violence.

But King said that America was a nation of politics and voting, not violence, and that we should follow Christ’s example of rejecting it.

BRANCH: So Dr. King kind of put one foot in the Scripture and one foot in the Constitution, equal souls and equal votes, and that that message kind of set a lot of change in motion, not just for between black and white, but between men and women.

After his death, Branch says non-violence became “passe.” The Black Panthers gained popularity as a militant group aiming to end police brutality against black people.

And while some elected officials tried to support King’s vision for equal rights, others perpetuated many of the unjust systems. It would take years of slow work to bring many of those systems forward and bring America closer to King’s dream.

Those who knew King say he didn’t expect to live past 30—and he would gladly give his life to the cause.

He gave his last speech in Memphis the night before he died.

MARTIN LUTHER KING: Well 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. 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! 

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.

That’s this week’s World History Book, I’m Mary Muncy.

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