Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination: Date, Details, and Legacy

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. He was shot by James Earl Ray, a white supremacist who had a long history of criminal activity. King had been in Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers, and had given a speech the night before in which he spoke of his own mortality and the possibility of not living to see the end of the civil rights movement.

Ray was a fugitive from justice at the time of the assassination, having escaped from a Missouri prison where he was serving time for armed robbery. He was eventually apprehended in London, and extradited to the United States to stand trial for the murder of King.

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. had a profound impact on the civil rights movement and on American society as a whole. It led to a period of intense mourning and reflection, and helped to galvanize support for the movement's goals of racial equality and justice. King's legacy lives on today, as his message of nonviolence, equality, and justice continues to inspire people around the world.