Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, after returning to support striking African-American sanitation workers protesting low pay and poor working conditions. Shot at 6:01 p.m. while standing outside room 306, he was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. the same evening. The day before, he had delivered his final "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple. James Earl Ray was later arrested, extradited, and convicted, but the case remained controversial. King's killing became one of the defining shocks of the 1960s and a major turning point for the civil rights movement.

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Photo: Wikipedia · Public domain

Memphis, Tennessee · USA