223 Who Really Killed Martin Luther King, Jr?
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister famous for his role in the civil rights movement until his assassination in 1968, at the age of 39. He encouraged non-violent resistance and non-violent civil disobedience, leading marches for desegregation and equal rights. He is most famous for his role in the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, and the 1963 March on Washington where he delivered his famous I have a Dream speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Despite his peaceful resistance, he was incarcerated several times and was an object of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI Counterintelligence Program – which was a series of covert and illegal projects between 1956 and 1971 aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting “subversive” political organizations. They investigated him for possible ties to communism, spied on him, and secretly recorded him. In 1964, the FBI sent him a package with a letter and a tape recording alleging of King’s sexual indiscretions as an apparent attempt at blackmail. On April 4, 1968 James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penetentiary, allegedly assassinated MLK Jr. However, many including MLK Jrs family, believe James Earl Ray was just the patsy. What really happened to Martin Luther King, Jr?