On March 19, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at St. Paul Methodist Church in Laurel to rally support for the Poor People's March on Washington against economic injustice. He told the overflow audience that the marchers were going to Washington to demand improvement in the lives of poor people. This was among King's last stops in Mississippi before his assassination in Memphis on April 4. The Poor People's March continued after his death, reaching Washington on May 12.