_-_NARA_-_542015_-_Restoration.jpg)
“Coretta,” Jesse said. “Doc just got shot.”
Coretta stood shocked. She knew there were threats to his life and In her book, ‘My life with Martin Luther King Jr’, she mentions, “The call that I have been subconsciously been waiting for had come.”
Dr Martin Luther King had walked out of his Memphis, Tennessee motel room at 6.01 pm on April 4, 1968. Dressed in his usual dark suit, tie and white shirt, he was tired but was ready for the peace meeting that night. It had been a long day as he and co-workers made plans for nonviolent marches to help the South’s black people.
Meanwhile, in a dirty bathroom of a boarding house across the street, James Earl Ray, a white man who hated black people, raised his high powered Remington pump rifle and took him at his target 205 feet away.
Unaware of any threat, Dr King walked to the railing of the second floor. Calmly he looked at his companions waiting for him below. “I want you to sing ‘Precious Lord’ for me,” called Dr King to Ben Branch, who was to perform at the meeting that night. “Sing it real pretty.”
“It’s getting chilly, Dr King. Better take an overcoat,” said his driver, Solomon Jones.
Smiling, King said, “Ok, I will.” He turned back toward his room.
Ray had been keeping track of the movement of Dr King for the past few days. He was staying at room 5B in a dingy rooming office. The room’s dirty bathroom had a clear view of Dr King’s room. Ray has been waiting for the past two hours to pull the trigger. At 6 pm, Ray lifted the bathroom window, rested his gun on the window sill and took aim.
With Dr King in the crosshair, Ray pressed the trigger. A single shot rang out. It sounded like a firecracker. Dr King’s friends and co-workers rushed up the stairs.
The bullet had hit Dr King through the neck, breaking his spinal cord and hurling the strong activist and civil rights leader against the motel’s wall and down to the concrete walkway.
Blood splattered out and spread down the front of the fallen leader’s white shirt. “Oh Lord,” cried out one aide.
Meanwhile, Ray lowered the gun, wrapped it up and rushed out of the bathroom into the hall. Willie Anschutz, a roomer shouted, “That sounded like a shot!”
Turning, Ray smiled and said, “Yes, it was.”
He dropped the gun in the front doorway and started the engine of his Mustang car and sped away. He could hear the sound of an ambulance coming for Dr King.
Dr King was rushed to the St Joseph’s Hospital. However, within an hour, he was declared dead. The non-violent Gandhi of America had succumbed to the racist bullet of hatred.
Mrs King was shell-shocked and kept thinking of a world without King for her and their four children.
Immediately after the killing, Mrs King faced the painful task of telling her children they would never see their father alive again.
It was most difficult to explain to the youngest member of the family, five-year-old Bernice who had not yet been told of her father’s death when the family went to the Atlanta airport to receive the casket.
In her book, Coretta wrote, “Bernice started looking around and asked, ‘Mommy, where is daddy?’ I was silent and she said again, ‘Mom, where is Daddy?’ By this time my heart was breaking. Finally, I took her in my arms and sat down with her, and said, “Bunny, Daddy is lying down in his casket in the back of the plane, and he is asleep. When you see him, he won’t be able to speak to you.’ I could not explain anything more to her.”
Around the country, radio and TV stations aired the tragic news. American President Lyndon Johnson said, “America is shocked and saddened by this brutal slaying.”
Riots took place in 168 towns and cities. Ten people were killed in arson and riots in Washington DC. 700 fire incidents were reported. Important buildings like the White House and The Capitol came under the control of the troops of the National Guard. The riots lasted for three days.
King’s funeral was held on April 11, 1968, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
Gospel Singer Mahalia Jackson, during his funeral procession, sang, ‘Precious Lord, Take My Hand’ -- the song King had spoken about just moments before he was shot.
BACKGROUND
For more than two months Ray evaded capture, but he was eventually caught. On March 10,1969 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The man wanted to become famous. and was glad that his notoriety surpassed his fame. Ray was biased against black people. He had a criminal track record. Conspiracy theories suggested that Dr King caused a serious dent in the government’s image internationally. A Unitarian, he was disliked by right-wingers. It was ethnic hate that killed Martin Luther King
---
(Published in The Martyrs' Supplement, The New Indian Express, South India & New Delhi along with The Morning Standard, January 30, 2019
Link: http://epaper.newindianexpress.com/2002986/The-New-Indian-Express-Kochi/30012019#page/31/2
Comments
Post a Comment