Assassination of Martin Luther King, Pt. 1 Quiz

Answer: Memphis, Tennessee

King had been in Memphis for a protest the week before. But, he and his close aides had to flee when the protest turned violent---in direct contradiction to his message of non-violence. Had that protest worked, he would never have been in Memphis on the day he was assassinated.

Answer: To support a strike by garbage workers

The garbage workers had gone on strike because of the horrific deaths of two of them a couple of weeks before King came to town. The two had gotten into the back of a garbage truck to keep warm during the night, because there was no place the city provided them to go. They were accidentally crushed to death when the truck's compactor was turned on.

Answer: James Earl Ray

Up until his assassination of Dr. King, Ray had always been involved in petty, fairly non-violent crimes.

Answer: Lorraine Motel

The Lorraine Motel was freguently the hotel of choice for civil rights leaders and other prominent blacks visiting Memphis. This may be due to the fact that even though discrimination in hotel accomodations was against American constitutional law, it was still very much a fact in much of the south. In fact, Dr. King had stayed there a week before when he led a demonstration supporting the garbage workers that, to his deep chagrin, had turned violent.
The motel has now become a civil rights museum.

Answer: To dinner at the home of a close friend and supporter

Dr. King was leaning over the balcony railing, talking to an aide about the meal the aide's wife was preparing and had just straightened up when he was hit.

Answer: Through the window of a rear bathroom in a boarding house that faced the motel balcony.

James Earl Ray was actually standing in the claw-foot bathtub in the bathroom when he sighted King and pulled the trigger for the sole shot he fired.
There was no hill or grocery store. But, what the Memphis fire department had done on April 4, 1968 helped give rise to the conspiracy theories that implicated the U.S. government in King's death. The only two black firefighters in that station were transfered to a different station on the morning of April 4. Many people took this as a sign the government wanted no black witnesses to any part of a plot that the government was aware of.

Answer: No one

King had stepped out of room 306, which he was sharing with his closest friend and advisor, Rev. Ralph Abernathy. He left the door open while having a brief, lighthearted moment talking to another aide about dinner. Abernathy was physically closest to King when the shot was fired and he immediately ran out onto the balcony. Both Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson were on the parking lot and raced up the stairs as soon as they heard the gunshot, along with other aides.

Answer: His right jaw and cheek.

The shot that hit Dr. King was so powerful that it tore out a huge chunk of his jaw, cheek and neck and was said to creatie a cavity as large as a man's fist. Ralph Abernathy tried to stop the gushing blood by packing towels over and around the wound until medical help arrived. But it was an impossible task.

Answer: Abernathy says King was conscious and looked terrified, but was unable to speak

Ralph Abernathy, King's closest friend and confidant, talked many times over the years about his last moments with King. As was usual for their out-of-town travel, Abernathy and King were sharing a double room in the Lorraine Motel. He thought Dr. King completely understood what had happened and had a terrified look in his eyes. Abernathy said that he kept repeating, "It's me, Martin.

It's Ralph. You're going to be all right." In the pictures taken on the balcony just after the shooting, Abernathy is seen kneeling next to Dr. King, looking only at him, with his hands on the towels around the lower part of King's face.

Answer: His younger brother, Rev. A.D. King.

Rev. A.D. King was completely distraught when told his brother had been shot. He never recovered psychologically from the assassination. On July 21, 1969 A.D. King allegedly drowned in the swimming pool at his house. He was 39 years old.