Quick Facts
- Date: April 4, 1968 (Thursday)
- Location: Lorraine Motel, 450 Mulberry Street, Memphis, Tennessee
- Time: Shot shortly after 6:00 p.m. Central (many accounts list 6:01 p.m.; some sources note 6:05 p.m.); pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Hospital
- Why King was in Memphis: To support the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike
- Key figures: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; colleagues with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; James Earl Ray (who pleaded guilty in 1969 and received a 99‑year sentence)
Main Story
On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot while standing on the second‑floor balcony outside Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He had returned to the 901 to support striking sanitation workers seeking union recognition and safer, fairer working conditions. After the shooting, King was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. The news reverberated across the nation and the Bluff City, marking one of the most consequential moments in Memphis history.
Authoritative histories and museum records confirm the essential timeline: a single rifle shot struck King as he prepared to leave for dinner with local clergy; he died less than an hour later despite emergency efforts. The Lorraine Motel—now the National Civil Rights Museum—preserves Room 306 and documents the assassination and its context within the broader civil rights movement. James Earl Ray later pleaded guilty to King’s murder in 1969; he subsequently recanted, and debates about wider involvement have persisted, but the official court record remains his conviction.
Legacy
In the days that followed, Coretta Scott King led a silent march in Memphis in honor of her husband and in support of the sanitation workers. The strike concluded on April 16, 1968, with union recognition and wage gains. The Lorraine site reopened in 1991 as the National Civil Rights Museum, a cornerstone of Memphis history education and a stop for visitors exploring South Main and Beale Street. Today, the museum’s exhibitions connect the tragedy on Mulberry Street to ongoing struggles for justice—rooting Memphis’s identity in remembrance, civic action, and the living legacy of the civil rights movement.
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