In the article below from 5 April 1968, the Guardian announced that on the previous day Dr King was shot dead on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Dr King was planning to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions.
The front page on which the report of his death appeared can be downloaded below:
Friday 5 April 1968 Dr Luther King shot dead
It is mentioned in the article that: “Police reported sporadic acts of violence broke out … as news of the shooting spread.”
After the assassination President Lyndon Johnson appealed for peace.
“I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has taken Dr King who lived by non-violence.”
His death however was followed by rioting in __more than 100 US cities.
Dr King , who was 39, had previously survived several attempts on his life, including the bombing of his home in 1956.
On Saturday 6 April a reflective article on the aftermath of Martin Luther King’s assassination appeared in the Guardian.
After the death of Martin Luther King
The headline: ‘After the death of Martin Luther King: chaos or community’ referred to the title of Dr King’s last book ‘ Chaos or Community’. The article concludes: “But with this assassination, America has moved one step nearer to chaos, and one step farther from community.
The two articles from 5 and 6 April refer to Martin Luther King being the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 at the age of 35.
King actually stopped off in London on his way from the US to Oslo to collect the prize to make a speech in St Paul’s Cathedral to a congregation of 3,000. The following records the occasion.
Martin Luther King in London, 1964: reflections on a landmark visit
On 6 April 1968 Richard Scott highlighted an article for ‘Look’ magazine in which Martin Luther King outlined his philosophy of non-violence and the objectives of the campaign he was planning for the spring and summer of 1968. King wrote: “We will place the problems of the poor at the seat of government of the wealthiest nation in the history of mankind.” The article is below:
From the archive, 6 April 1968: Martin Luther King’s philosophy of non-violence
In a description of a farm wagon and its mules standing outside the church on the street in Atlanta where Martin Luther King was born, waiting to carry his body and “lay it to rest”, the Guardian’s US correspondent Alistair Cooke explains:
“The mule train is the oldest and still most dependable form of transport of the rural poor in the southland. And somebody had the graceful idea that a mule train would be the aptest cortège for the man who was the apostle of the poor.”
The funeral of Martin Luther King 9 April 1968 by Alistair Cooke
Further reading
From the archive 28 August 1963:Europe will see civil rights march on Washington on TV
From the archive 29 August1963: 200,000 demonstrate for civil rights
Martin Luther King; the story behind ‘I have a dream’ speech by Gary Younge
From the archive blog: Selma to Montgomery: Martin Luther King and the march for freedom
The life and death of Martin Luther King
GNM education centre: Civil rights in the USA in the 1950s and 1960s workshop
Previous archive teaching resources
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