On April 4th, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. As a result, Memphis has become home to several museums and tours that focus on the history of the Civil Rights movement and Dr. King himself.
However, there may be a few things you haven’t learned from your history books about that eventful day in April that are extremely interesting to say the least. To find out what these things are, All My Sons local Memphis movers have put together a list of things you probably didn’t know about the assassination of Martin Luther King.
- James Earl Ray, who was arrested and later pleaded guilty for the murder of Dr. King, had previously escaped a prison in Missouri. Ray traveled to Memphis and rented a second-floor room that had a view of King’s room from across the street.
- King was preparing to go to dinner with Memphis minister, Samuel Kyles, and Ralph Abernathy when he was shot and killed on his hotel room balcony.
- President Lyndon B. Johnson did not attend Dr. King’s funeral service, but rather a memorial service and declared a national day of mourning three days after the assassination took place.
- James Earl Ray desperately tried to rescind his guilty plea after being sent to prison, but his case was never reopened. Dr. King’s family joined Ray’s efforts to be freed, claiming he was an innocent man, but Ray died in prison in 1998.
To learn more about local history and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. after moving to Memphis, All My Sons Moving & Storage, suggests visiting all the educational museums and centers this city has to offer.