MLK was slaughtered on this day 47 years ago

[malaise]

Damn time flies.

[steve2470]

1. ...........

for Dr. King

[yeoman6987]

2. Who murdered him? What were the circumstances

We hear so much about JFK but not much on MLK.

[A HERETIC I AM]

3. He was shot for exactly the same reason JFK was.....

He wanted to change things for the betterment of the common man.

[yeoman6987]

4. Thanks. So it was a guy like lee Harvey.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. If you think a second rate shot with a crappy gun from a bad enfilade....

was the sole perpetrator of JFK's assasination...


good on ya!

[yeoman6987]

10. Not saying anything.

Keep in mind I am not 47 so was not born during that time. How did you know about this stuff?

[WinkyDink]

12. Some of us are "of a certain age." IOW: We were alive in 1968.

[JustAnotherGen]

24. I wasn't born until 1973

And I know this stuff. Some of us paid attention.

[WinkyDink]

61. ;-)

[appalachiablue]

68. +1

[yeoman6987]

70. I was looking outside the window wishing I was out there

Of course I regret that now because I am so behind on a number of subjects. Don't laugh but I seriously have learned more on this site then my entire schooling experience.

[A HERETIC I AM]

13. Being born in the last year of Eisenhower....

and remembering being told that "John John's daddy was killed" like it was yesterday might have something to do with it.

[WinkyDink]

15. Same as John, Jr. was. 1960.

[A HERETIC I AM]

17. Well....I'll be 56 on May 6th. n/t

[libdem4life]

33. I was born half way through Harry Truman's Administration.

In high school Geometry class we learned that JFK was dead. I was watching TV when RFK was killed. I watched them escort the little black girl into the public school. Then MLK. They call us post-war Boomers, but seems like war, assassinations and intolerance was everywhere.

[A HERETIC I AM]

34. In 1968 I lived 20 miles from the White House

What a horrible year

[libdem4life]

44. Indeed. Then there was the Viet Nam War. Attended Richard Nixon's alma mater.

We hanged him in effigy.

[lastlib]

64. Thank you.

My seething hatred for that shit is exceeded only by that of Reagan, Cheney, Bush and Bush, in no particular order.

[libdem4life]

66. A bit of irony...in 1964 I was President of the Young Republicans in Whittier. Met

Nixon at our little puddle jumper airport a couple of times. My Dad was a John Bircher.

Then I went to the Liberal Arts Whittier College in 1966, the first in my family not to go to a religious college, and quickly became a Democrat. That was what they feared, I'm sure. Learned to think for myself.

[ailsagirl]

43. It was a terrible, terrible day

and this country has never been the same.

[pangaia]

67. I was in Memphis when Dr. King was killed.

Teaching at Memphis State University.

[steve2470]

5. James Earl Ray

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr.

[yeoman6987]

6. Thanks. Reading the OP

Made me suddenly think how ignorant I am about MLK except some speeches. I will read up on this. Thanks!

[Jackpine Radical]

29. MLK has been very "sanitized," known for his civil rights marches, but

the media say little or nothing about his anti-war activism or his anti-poverty, pro-union work. It was actually while engaging in the last-named activity--union organizing--that he was shot.

I vividly remember the day I heard MLK was killed. I was in Vietnam at a place called Camp Evans a few miles south of the DMZ. I heard it from a black buddy who had just been listening to Armed Forces radio.

[Number23]

32. So he was only known for his "marches" and not his "real" work, huh?

It's funny how people see things.

Every black person I know sees the efforts to white wash Dr. King as perpetually non-violent and singing Kumbaya about everything as the "sanitizing" of his legacy. You apparently see the predominance of the focus on his civil rights work -- the reason the entire world knows his name, the reason he was killed -- as the "sanitizing."

MLK was a passionate advocate for BLACK RIGHTS. THIS was his life's work. He openly wept about making life better for his children and for his people. He put his LIFE ON THE LINE for his children and his people. For the life of me, I will never, ever, EVER understand why so many people -- the vast majority of whom are white -- burn so many calories minimizing this.

[Jackpine Radical]

40. You seem to have thoroughly misunderstood me. The fault is probably mine.

I didn't mean in any way to diminish what MLK did for civil rights. In fact, it was the very success of his work there that "legitimized" the Civil Rights Movement. He is rightly honored for that; however, people are simply not told about the courageous stances he took on these other issues.

[Number23]

86. I think people are aware of these issues but they are just simply not as revered as the danger

he put himself and everyone he knew or cared about in every single day trying to change the political, cultural and economic fabric of America by demanding that black people FINALLY have a seat at the table. As I mentioned, black rights are why the world knows his name.

But I appreciate the civility of your response.

[yardwork]

55. I think that you misunderstood the post.

Since you live in New Zealand, I find it curious that you are often so critical of what white people are saying and thinking in the U.S.

[Number23]

84. You could not be more wrong and I have absolutely no idea why you felt the need to chime

in with your inaccurate and incredibly irrelevant post.

NOTHING in your post is correct. Not one damn thing. And what I decide to post about truly could not be less of your concern.

[sheshe2]

62. One of my favorite passages~

"He crisscrossed the south organizing people, helping them not be afraid, and encouraging them, like Gandhi did in India, to take the beating that they had been trying to avoid all their lives."

Once the beating was over, we were free.

It wasn't the Civil Rights Act, or the Voting Rights Act or the Fair Housing Act that freed us. It was taking the beating and thereafter not being afraid. So, sorry Mrs. Clinton, as much as I admire you, you were wrong on this one. Our people freed ourselves and those Acts, as important as they were, were only white people officially recognizing what we had done".

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/29/1011562/-Most-of-you-have-no-idea-what-Martin-Luther-King-actually-did

[Hekate]

81. No. 23, toward the end MLK was trying to speak out against the war, and trying to....

....make Americans (most of whom were in fact white) understand, really understand, that poverty and injustice and lack of opportunity were not just about African Americans, and that the majority of participants in welfare programs were not black, but white. There's disproportion, and then there's sheer numbers.

They didn't want to hear it you know. They just wanted to shut him up.

"They were not listening, they're not listening still. Perhaps they never will."

All of it was "his real work."

It breaks my heart.

[Number23]

85. I know that he spoke out about the war. But that is one component of King's legacy and is much, MUCH

smaller than the one that he is known and revered for the world over.

And that was the liberation of black people from white oppression. And the real truth of the matter is that the closer King got to his death, the more militant in terms of black pride and strength he became.

[Hekate]

88. I know, I know....

So much loss

[Jackpine Radical]

92. I didn't realize you were a Kiwi. That might be the source of the confusion.

I expect that the whole rest of the world knows more about MLK than the average American does, because the media here, being tools of the Empire, have "airbrushed" his image in a way that the more responsible foreign press does not do.

What I was really addressing was his treatment in the American press, and the consequences thereof in the average American's knowledge base. You obviously have a more complete picture of MLK than is typical of politically disengaged Americans whose knowledge is totally informed by the politically motivated half-truths they have been fed.

My error was in not realizing you were speaking with the assumption that Americans are as well-informed about American politics as New Zealanders are. They are not. MLK is "acceptable" as a civil rights hero, but the mass media never mention his war and labor stances because the Empire frowns on those actions.

True, MLK's work in racial civil rights was much more extensive than what he did in the other areas, but that is only because, with Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Acts in 1964, he was just turning his major focus on these larger issues when he was killed. Personally, I'm not sure this was a coincidence. Some degree of racial integration was useful to the Empire in order to enlarge the labor force, but anti-war and pro-labor activism were not tolerable, so King had to die, and his activity in these areas extirpated from the national memory.

[Number23]

94. I am not a Kiwi. Did you not see my response to that person's stupid and pointless post?

I am black Southern American woman born and raised in the town where King did most of his work.

My grandparents worked closely with the man and everything I know, I learned from them. If I ever needed clarification of his methods or what he did or why, my family would be my first port of information and in all truth and honesty, DU would probably be my last.

[Jackpine Radical]

95. I saw your response but didn't realize your generic rejection of that post

included his allegation about your nationality.

That said, I would indeed defer to you as being in a position to know things I cannot, and would stand to have my comments corrected in some detail if you feel the urge to do so.

[Number23]

96. Again, I sincerely appreciate your civility.

I have grown immensely tired of seeing the "King wasn't JUST a civil rights hero" meme tossed around this board and among other havens of white thought, both liberal and conservative. That 'just' puts my teeth on edge, as if for this man to have been so revered around the world, for people in schools and communities around the world to have learned about him, he simply had to be about so much more than JUST black civil rights in America.

But at the heart of the matter, that is quite simply the single most important issue that he is known for. What he is revered for. And what he was killed for. There is no question that King was an adamant protestor of the Vietnam War, that he protested and was a stalwart proponent of worker's rights. But he was one of millions who were. The thing that made Martin Luther King Jr. MLK imo was his impassioned commitment to black rights and his religious beliefs that no man was greater or worse than any other before God. Period. The reason his positions on these other issues were even given the tiniest bit of weight was because of the political clout, accolades, death threats, imprisonments and worldwide acclaim that he got as a proponent of BLACK RIGHTS.

By all means, let's talk about all of the other things he fought for. But when you state, as you did, that he has been "sanitized" and that all of the focus is on his "marches" instead of the other, presumably equally as important work as his stance on worker's issues and the Vietnam War, that's when I stepped in. There's no question King has been sanitized, but not because of the focus on civil rights for black people. That WAS his work, and in my opinion, it's the desperate efforts to re-write the attention he gave to other issues as being every bit as important, if not more so, than his work on black rights that is the "sanitizing." NOTHING was more important to the man than for his children and his people to have the rights that many whites took for granted.

And I'd probably feel this way even without my personal history, though there is no question that my upbringing and what I have learned about the man growing up color these feelings.

I'd encourage you to read the article that sheshe2 linked to in her response to me upthread a bit. There is a reason that pictures of MLK lined every old black person's house I knew growing up, along with pictures of JFK and Jesus. And as important as protesting the Vietnam War was, you can bet every dollar to your name that was not the reason those pics lined those homes up and down the American South, nor is it the reason the whole world knows his name and cherishes his memory.

[panader0]

7. Really? You didn't know?

Yeah malaise, time flies. I can't believe it's been 47 years either...
RIP MLK

[yeoman6987]

8. Nope but a kind DUer gave me some valuable info.

I guess I missed it in school. I am getting there.

[panader0]

20. The guys with three first names: James Earl Ray and Lee Harvey Oswald.

Sorry if I was rude. An important piece of history, but then I'm 64....

[malaise]

23. Amazing indeed

That sure was a loss

[WinkyDink]

11. We'll never know the whole truth. Sound familiar?

[Demeter]

31. It took 60 years for the dirt on WWII to start to come out

I have hopes that eventually the world will know EXACTLY what went down, by whom, and why.

If only because of bragging. (I wouldn't wait for remorse).

[Blue_In_AK]

14. I remember that day so well.

What a sad year 1968 was. I was a senior in college, and all of these events had a lasting impact on me.

[steve2470]

16. I remember hearing about it, I was only 9

I remember RFK's assassination that year also. I remember both days were very sad to me.

[malaise]

21. I was 19

1968 left a permanent scar.

[etherealtruth]

18. I was in kindergarten

such a horrible loss

[Buzz Clik]

19. It was a bad day for those of us who were around

[Jackpine Radical]

30. And for those who came later.

[Window]

77. It truly was a bad day (time).

My twin daughters were 5 years old at the time and I heard them whispering to their father, "Mommy's keeps crying because Dr. Martin Luther of the King was killed." Oh, my....

[Comrade Grumpy]

22. I remember cities going up in flames.

I moved to Washington, DC, in the early 1990s--a quarter century after the riots--and parts of 14th St NW were still burned out.

[malaise]

26. I was fairly conscious politically

but the deaths of so many progressives affected me big time

[raven mad]

25. I will never forget where I was -

and it was when I was quite young.

[MrMickeysMom]

27. Everyone can research much here...

http://blackopradio.com

[malaise]

28. Thanks MrMickeysMom

[MrMickeysMom]

35. Happy to help, malaise...

[RufusTFirefly]

37. In 1999, the King family filed a wrongful death suit

From Wikipedia (parenthetical remarks are mine):

Following (James Earl) Ray's death, (longtime King family friend and attorney William F.)Pepper represented the King family in a wrongful death lawsuit, "King family vs. Loyd Jowers and other unknown co-conspirators". During a trial that lasted four weeks, Pepper produced over seventy witnesses. Jowers, testifying by deposition, stated that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat and not involved in the assassination. Jowers testified that Memphis police officer Earl Clark fired the fatal shots. On December 8, 1999, the Memphis jury found Jowers responsible, and also found that the assassination plot included "governmental agencies." The jury took less than an hour to find in favor of the King family for the requested sum of $100.

From the suit's transcript:

THE COURT: All right, ladies and gentlemen. Let me ask you, do all of you
agree with this verdict?

THE JURY: Yes (In unison).

THE COURT: In answer to the question did Loyd Jowers participate in a conspiracy to do harm to Dr. Martin Luther King, your answer is yes. Do you also find that others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by the defendant? Your answer to that one is also yes. And the total amount of damages you find for the plaintiffs entitled to is one hundred dollars. Is that your verdict?

THE JURY: Yes (In unison).

And lest you think that this information comes from a conspiracy site, I found it on the Web site of the King Center.

[malaise]

39. I have learned that sometimes the CT websites

actually have the truth

[In_The_Wind]

38. ...

[mountain grammy]

41. I was 27 days away from giving birth to my first child

driving somewhere near Peekskill, NY, where I was living, when I heard the news on the radio. I pulled over and threw up, then sat down next to my car, sobbing. A cop pulled up behind me. He came over and helped me up ( I was huge) and asked me what was wrong. I told him Martin Luther King had been murdered. He didn't know. He put his arm around me and we stood there crying together for a while. Just a big pregnant woman and a cop crying for the loss of one of the best and most important human beings in our lifetime.

[ailsagirl]

46. Touching post, mountain grammy

What a tremendous tragedy

[malaise]

74. Wow!

I can imagine that moment

[Cha]

45. Yes, and there's a wonderful tribute to him on the Obama Diary..

Martin Luther King Jr: Always In Our Hearts

deray mckesson @deray
Follow
King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Today marks the 47th anniversary of his death.
4:24 AM - 4 Apr 2015 7,343 Retweets 3,444 favorites

MOre~
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/04/04/martin-luther-king-jr-always-in-our-hearts/


West Wing Reports ✔ @WestWingReport
Follow
The Widows: Jacqueline Kennedy comforts Coretta Scott King
1:51 PM - 4 Apr 2015 40 Retweets 33 favorites

http://theobamadiary.com/2015/04/04/happy-birthday-to-the-phenomenal-maya-angelou/

Mahalo malaise

[steve2470]

47. mahalo Cha

hope you and your family are well!

[Cha]

51. Thank you, steve

And, I hope the best for you and your family.

[napkinz]

49. Robert F. Kennedy's Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Speech

[Cha]

53. Thank you, napkinz~

[napkinz]

57. two great speeches, two great individuals ... lost to us

[malaise]

73. Great link

[Rex]

65. Wow that last picture is powerful, takes my breath away.

Few people have come along and forced change to the status quo like MLK, through non-violent means. My parents told me the three times the cried about something on TV; The Kennedy assassinations and MLK getting assassinated. They say it changed the country for the worse and we've never gone back since then.

[Cha]

69. It is so Powerful, Rex.. and so unbearably sad.

[Rex]

87. I put MLK on a different level than JFK. To me MLK's fight against the white establishment

was similar to Mahatma Mohandis fight against the Imperial British. The world lost so much when he was assassinated. Not trying to minimize JFK, but I never looked at him as a spiritual leader. A leader of industry yes. Many have been leaders of industry, few true spiritual leaders imo.



To all four men. Life would be different on this planet had they lived.

[RKP5637]

48. JFK, then MLK. I think the world would be different. Damn, Only The Good Die Young.

It just does not seem that long ago. As you say, "Damn time flies."

[jimlup]

52. RFK as well ...

It was a cluster fuck of bad times and good times back then. I do wonder if there was much more than meets the eye or the history books going on behind the scenes. If so, you can bet it is 100x worse now.

[RKP5637]

58. Yes, definitely RFK too. I will always feel there was a lot going on behind the scenes.

I'm not a CT'er, but I just feel there is too much controversy surrounding these deaths. Yes, agree, it is most likely 100x now. I'm just stunned by the well organized hatred in this country.

[jimlup]

50. So do you think James Earl Ray was guilty or was it a frameup as he claimed? /nt

[malaise]

90. Frameup

I don't drink Kool-Aid.

[democrank]

54. He had a dream......

~PEACE~

[Manifestor_of_Light]

56. Pride (In the Name of Love)

U2, 1988, Joshua Tree Tour, Paris:

Bono says "early morning" because he was in Ireland which is a few hours ahead of the United States, and it was morning when he heard the news when he was a little kid.

Early morning, April 4th
Shot rings out in the Memphis sky
They asked for your life
They could not take your pride
In the name of love
What more in the name of love

[BumRushDaShow]

59. I was in 1st grade

And we had a special assembly to memorialize MLK at school the next day.... Obviously didn't fully grasp the situation then except that a very important "negro" civil rights leader had died.

And you're right. Time has flown by. And look at what has changed though... Who would have thought you'd have this -





The President and I are the same age and were were those "little children", along with MLK's own children, that he spoke about. This helps prove that he did not die in vain, although we still struggle with that dream of not being judged.

[WillyT]

60. I Have Been to the Mountaintop Full Speech:

[malaise]

75. Thanks WillyT

[WillyT]

80. Anytime malaise... Anytime...

[George II]

63. It was a horrible day in American history (I can still remember where I was when I heard the news)..

...but "slaughtered" is a bit extreme.

[appalachiablue]

71. Great man, terrible loss for the world. 1968 the year of tragedy, I was young, living in MD.

[RoccoR5955]

72. Not slaughtered, assassinated.

Assassinated by the establishment that did not like that he was making inroads into the mainstream, and more and more people were actually listening to him. The same people are responsible for the assassinations of JFK and RFK, and possibly John Lennon, and Paul Wellstone IMNSHO.

[malaise]

76. They were all slaughtered

by the establishment. I chose that word deliberately

[Hekate]

78. Damn, I am old -- and he is not...

They were all mowed down in those years, one after another.

[deutsey]

79. "Let us kill him...and see what will become of his dreams."

"Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!" Genesis 37:19

[malaise]

89. Well his dream lives on

Still they so killed many dreams and many dreamers

[lovemydog]

82. His amazing speech from 1967: Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam

[malaise]

93. Thanks for this

[gwheezie]

83. I was living in Newark nj

I called my mom. We cried. Then we marched. Of the many lessons I learned from mlk I remember thinking I should have marched before he was killed. March with your leader not to mourn his death.

[MinM]

91. Marrell McCollough - agent provocateur

As both Time Magazine and ABC's Sam Donaldson have revealed since there was an agent provocateur in MLK's inner circle .. Marrell McCollough.

McCollough played a part in fomenting violence during the sanitation strike which forced Dr. King to return to Memphis...

By Jim Douglass

Coretta Scott King testified that her husband had to return to Memphis in early April 1968 because of a violent demonstration there for which he had been blamed. Moments after King upon arriving in Memphis joined the sanitation workers’ march there on [font color=darkred]March 28, 1968[/font], the scene turned violent – [font color=red]subverted by government provocateurs[/font], Lawson said. [font color=blue]Thus King had to return to Memphis on April 3 and prepare for a truly nonviolent march[/font], Mrs. King said, to prove SCLC could still carry out a nonviolent campaign in Washington...

http://www.ctka.net/pr500-king.html

Finally .. Marrell McCullough's mission seems to have wrapped up after he confirmed Dr. King's death..

Which now brings us to Merrell McCullough. McCullough was one of the informants masquerading as an Invader. Secretly, he was a police informant who was also connected to the FBI. It turns out that, before the murder, Merrell was introduced to Jowers as a policeman. (p. 184) Right before the assassination, McCullough had been in Jim's Grill meeting with four other men. (p. 188) One of whom was another member of the police force named Lt. Zachery. (p. 204)

One of the extraordinary disclosures made at the trial concerned Sam Donaldson, the reporter who originally broadcast Jowers revelations in 1993. As we will see later, there was a backup hit team in town from military intelligence. We also know from a famous photograph that McCullough immediately ran up to the balcony after King was hit.

In that picture, while others are pointing to where they think the shot came from, [font color=darkred]McCullough appears to be calmly checking King for vital signs[/font] while looking across the way...

http://www.ctka.net/reviews/13th_juror.html