{"id":6715,"date":"2014-04-04T16:35:37","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T16:35:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=6715"},"modified":"2024-04-04T14:12:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-04T18:12:08","slug":"46th-anniversary-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-s-assassination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/46th-anniversary-of-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-s-assassination.html","title":{"rendered":"46th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s Assassination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At 6:01 p.m. the evening of 4 April 1968, the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by an assassin while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Though rushed to St. Joseph\u2019s Hospital, Dr. King was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. He died young at only 39 years old. A stunned nation lost its leading proponent of nonviolence, the civil rights movement lost its most visible leader, and many Americans deeply mourned King\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. King had come to Memphis to lead a protest march supporting the city\u2019s striking garbage workers, almost all of whom were black. The plane carrying him to Memphis on April 3 received a bomb threat, and that night he gave what turned out to be the last speech of his life, sounding eerily as though he had already transcended his own death:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I\u2019m not concerned about that now\u2026I\u2019m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Historical newspapers are a great resource for exploring your ancestors\u2019 lives\u2014and the times they lived in. Here is a collection of old front-page headlines to show how newspapers broke the tragic news of MLK\u2019s assassination to the nation. (Note: all of the newspaper articles used to illustrate this blog post come from GenealogyBank\u2019s online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/explore\/newspapers\/all\">Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6716\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6716\" style=\"width: 390px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-record-american-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6716\" title=\"boston-record-american-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-record-american-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Record American newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"390\" height=\"572\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-record-american-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 390w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-record-american-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-204x300.png 204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 390px) 100vw, 390px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6716\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Record American (Boston, Massachusetts), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6717\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6717\" style=\"width: 809px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6717\" title=\"greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Greensboro Daily News newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"809\" height=\"596\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 809w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/greensboro-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-407x300.png 407w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 809px) 100vw, 809px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6718\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6718\" style=\"width: 599px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6718\" title=\"boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Boston Herald Traveler newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"599\" height=\"551\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 599w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x275.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/boston-herald-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-326x300.png 326w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, 599px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6718\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Boston Herald Traveler (Boston, Massachusetts), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6719\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6719\" style=\"width: 623px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6719\" title=\"centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Centre Daily Times newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"623\" height=\"562\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 623w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x270.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/centre-daily-times-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-332x300.png 332w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 623px) 100vw, 623px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6719\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Centre Daily Times (State College, Pennsylvania), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6720\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6720\" style=\"width: 583px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6720\" title=\"commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Commercial Appeal newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"583\" height=\"581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 583w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/commercial-appeal-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-301x300.png 301w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 583px) 100vw, 583px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6720\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6721\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6721\" style=\"width: 926px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6721\" title=\"advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Morning Advocate newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"926\" height=\"559\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 926w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/advocate-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-496x300.png 496w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 926px) 100vw, 926px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Morning Advocate (Baton Rouge, Louisiana), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6722\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6722\" style=\"width: 946px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6722\" title=\"aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Aberdeen American-News newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"946\" height=\"402\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 946w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x127.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aberdeen-daily-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-500x212.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6722\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Aberdeen American-News (Aberdeen, South Dakota), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6723\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6723\" style=\"width: 908px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6723\" title=\"augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Augusta Chronicle newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"908\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 908w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x173.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/augusta-chronicle-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-500x289.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 908px) 100vw, 908px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6723\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Georgia), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6724\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6724\" style=\"width: 850px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-6724\" title=\"dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png\" alt=\"front-page news about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dallas Morning News newspaper articles 5 April 1968\" width=\"850\" height=\"587\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination.png 850w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-300x207.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/dallas-morning-news-newspaper-0405-1968-martin-luther-king-assassination-434x300.png 434w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6724\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 5 April 1968, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/sign-up\">Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Related Articles:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/martin-luther-king-jr-brief-genealogy-family-tree-download.html\">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Brief Genealogy &amp; Family Tree Download<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/tag\/martin-luther-king-jr\">Read More Articles Related to Martin Luther King Jr.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An article about the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12323],"tags":[12451,6720,3343,6719,2020],"class_list":["post-6715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-american-history-genealogy","tag-african-american-history-genealogy","tag-assassinations","tag-civil-rights-movement","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-newspaper-archives"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/photo-0321-2016-featured-graphic-martin-luther-king.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6715"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83771,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6715\/revisions\/83771"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}