April 4, 1968 - Martin Luther King

Human Rights a Day

Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated.Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia. A bright student, he skipped grades nine and 12 and entered college at age 15. He graduated with a bachelor of arts, a bachelor of divinity, and a Ph.D. in theology by 1955, not to mention many awards and recognition from fellow students. During his studies, at the age of only 19, King was ordained as a Baptist minister at the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1953, he married Coretta Scott and they raised four children while he became increasingly involved in promoting rights for black Americans. While not the only black activist at the time, King was often seen as the face and voice of liberation for blacks. He was president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the group responsible for the Montgomery bus boycott in the mid-1950s. His involvement with the civil rights movement got him arrested 30 times, never deterring him from his writing, speeches and protests, which garnered him the Nobel Peace prize in 1964.Four years later, on April 3, 1968, King delivered a speech that mentioned threats on his life. “But it really doesn’t matter with me now, because I’ve been to the mountaintop and I don’t mind… I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”The next morning, on April 4, 1968, King was killed by an assassin while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.