40 years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

[Brent]

While standing on the motel's 2nd floor balcony, King was shot at 6:01 p.m. April 4, 1968. The bullet traveled through his right cheek smashing his jaw and then going down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder.[7] According to biographer Taylor Branch, King's last words on the balcony were to musician Ben Branch (no relation to Taylor Branch) who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was attending: "Ben, make sure you play Take My Hand, Precious Lord in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty."[8] Abernathy was inside the motel room, heard the shot and ran to the balcony to find King on the ground. Local Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles, whose house King was to visit before he was shot, remembers that upon seeing King go down he ran into a hotel room to call an ambulance. However, no one was on the switchboard so he ran back out and yelled to the police to get one on their radios. It was later revealed that no one was at the switchboard because the hotel switchboard operator, upon seeing King shot, had suffered a fatal heart attack.[9] King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Lut ... assination

http://history1900s.about.com/cs/martin ... assass.htm

Found some news clips from that night on YouTube from CBS News and Dan Rather(Walter Cronkite appears in other clips)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ6DPFXfpVI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBMfyraHP0k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kY4XjYZXyQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmOBbxgxKvo

[MiamiensisWx]

I have never understood the people who believe he harbored Communist ideas. Have they ever studied his belief system?

Rest in peace to one of the greatest people in this country (which does NOT include the Sharptons and Jacksons).

[Cryomaniac]

I'm guessing the people who say the communist stuff could just be trying to tie his death to some sort of CIA conspiracy.

[Derek Ortt]

I may be wrong, but wasn't he being investigated by the FBI for possible Communist ties?

For the record, if true, that was not a racist act by the FBI. They did a lot to protect the rights of blacks, including breaking up the KKK by brute force

[MiamiensisWx]

I may be wrong, but wasn't he being investigated by the FBI for possible Communist ties?

For the record, if true, that was not a racist act by the FBI. They did a lot to protect the rights of blacks, including breaking up the KKK by brute force

I believe that is correct. I was merely stating that other people (not involved with the FBI) who accused MLK of Communist ties based their accusations on unfounded and unsupportable information, at least in hindsight.

Several of his philosophies supported socialism, but they did not condone communism. In fact, I believe King himself said he did not like communism or the extremes of capitalism. He implied communism deprived people of individual liberty and their rights. He supported a blend of socialism and capitalism.

[gtalum]

King was a religious man, so I seriously doubt he harbored any love for Communism. I don't doubt that he held some socialist goals, though, as all of our politicians today do.

In the end, Dr. King made great strides for equality for all people in our country.

[Category 5]

One of the greatest men to ever walk this planet, period.

[HURAKAN]

One of the greatest men to ever walk this planet, period.

I concur. Most of us look after ourselves and our family, but very few stand up and look after our community and our ideals. MLK was one of those very precious persons that are born to change us for the better.

[Opal storm]

One of the greatest men to ever walk this planet, period.

Finally a positive comment in this thread.

Yes, he was great, positive influence on this nation.