King Assasination
During the African-American civil rights movement, Rev. James Lawson invited Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, Tennessee. King was invited there to support a sanitation workers’ strike. The workers there launched a campaign for union representation after 2 workers were killed on the job. King considered their struggle to be a vital part of the Poor People’s Campaign he was planning to launch.
Only a day after delivering his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermon, which was a famous speech for King’s vision of the American society, King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. This caused riots to break out in more than 110 cities throughout USA. The damage caused in those cities destroyed black businesses and homes, and slowed economic development for a generation. On April 8, 1968, Coretta Scott King and three of the King children marched through the streets of Memphis along with 20,000 supporters holding signs including, “Honor King: End Racisim” and “Union Justice Now”. Armed National Guardsmen lined the streets and had M-48 tanks and helicopters overhead to protect the marchers from any disputes. On April 9, 1968 on Martin Luther King Jr.’s funeral, Coretta King led 150,000 people through the streets of Atlanta, reviving courage and hope in many civil rights movement members, and making her place as the new leader in the struggle for racial equality. ‘Martin Luther King Jr. gave his life for the poor of the world, the garbage workers of Memphis and the peasants of Vietnam. The day that Negro people and others in bondage are truly free, on the day want is abolished, on the day wars are no more, on that day I know my husband will rest in a long-deserved peace.” - Coretta King |