Reasons For The Assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr

As most people know, Martin Luther King Jr played an important role in American History. Martin once said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. Martin Luther served a successful era as a social activist in the American Civil Rights movement in the mid 1950’s until his death. He had many accomplishments during his time such as; “Being honored with the distinguished award in 1964 with his active and dynamic leadership, highlighted by his nonviolent tactics, helped him earn the prize” (Vidette). At length, King’s unanticipated homicide affected people, events, and the world around him. The events leading up to the assassination of Martin, the assassination itself taking place, and finally how the immense impact
James Earl Ray was the man who successfully attempted and assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. James used a Remington 30-06 rifle to execute King. There is also many conspiracy theories as to whether or not James had assistance on killing Martin. Apparently, “Conspiracy claims hold the U.S. government was sued and found culpable for the murder Martin Luther King Jr, but the news media refused to report it” (Mikkelson). This assumption was false along with Earl claiming he met a man in Canada, who went by the name of Raoul, that had constructed the murder and shot Martin himself. Although, this later came to be false information determined by the FBI. James Earl was guilty of committing several misdemeanors in his lifetime before effectively assassinating Martin. This included acts such as drunkenness, breaking arrest, ineptness, lack of adaptability, and accounts of theft. James Earl appeared to want to assassinate Martin Luther King Jr because he was highly racist towards African Americans and entirely did not agree with some of Martins’ beliefs. It has also been stated that James wanted to kill Martin because he was looking forward to getting reward money raised by white supremacist businessmen as a reward for killing
In all, James Earl did accomplish his goal by killing Martin but did not receive the cash or recognition as hoped for. Immediately after killing King, “James fled the scene and set off a search that would last for more than 2 months and cover five countries” (Gelder). Finally, on July 19, 1968 the FBI caught up with James in London and took him to the U.S. There, he then pleaded guilty and got sentenced 99 years in prison. Dexter King, Martin Luther’s son came to the prison were James was being held and asked James about the killing of his father. James responded with the sense that he did not intentionally kill Martin and he had “helpers” which was incorrect information. Dexter then shook the hand of James Earl and stated that he believed him and left shortly after. A month or so later, James passed away on April 23, 1998 in Nashville, Tennessee due to a form of liver disease that he did not know he had for a portion of his life. Besides the people being affected by the death of Martin Luther King Jr, the society was and is still affected as well. Tensions between the Whites and African Americans were still at