Assassination of Martin Luther King

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Resources

On 4 April 1968, American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by a sniper's bullet at his hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. The death of King sparked riots all over the United States. On 10 March 1969, James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the crime and was then sentenced to 99 years in prison. However, Ray announced that his confession had been made under duress; furthermore, he claimed to be a patsy in a larger conspiracy. Surprisingly, the King family came to support Ray's move to reopen his case.

86 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Assassination of Martin Luther King". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 October 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1368, accessed 19 March 2024.]

1368 Assassination of Martin Luther King 2 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.