Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. succumbed to his injuries on April 4, 1968, an hour after James Earl Ray, a con artist who was supposed to be serving a 20-year sentence, shot him in the face.

In today’s blog, Kennedys and King brings you some notable events that made up the aftermath of the martin luther king assassination.

Major Riots Follow Regardless

When CBS Evening News reported King’s death, the host added Walter Cronkite added a message a request by America’s president at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson. It was a message to heed King’s message of non-violence, peace, and harmony legacy.

However, these words appeared to fall on deaf ears because the news report was followed by riots in at least 100 cities across the US, particularly in Black neighborhoods. They were so intense in Baltimore and Chicago that the National Guard and Marines had to intervene.

Coretta Scott King Leads a Silent March

Only four days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., his wife Coretta Scott King flew to Memphis on a plane arranged by Robert F. Kennedy. Her motive for going to Memphis wasn’t to start a protest or say something to incite violence but to continue her husband’s legacy and mission.

She organized a march for the country’s African American sanitation workers, which a crowd of 40,000 people moving through the streets eerily silent in their vigil attended.

Lester Maddox Refuses to Mourn

The news of MLK’s death brought mixed reactions. Had people been unified in their outrage and anger at such a senseless murder, the riots would’ve encompassed more than 100 cities.

On the one hand, the African American community was almost united in its confusion, grief, and anger at what may have been a hate crime. The white majority was mixed in its reaction; some grieved the loss of the Civil Rights leader, some remained silent, and a small number in the South were critical and outright rebellious.

Lester Maddox belonged to the latter category. The Governor of Georgia refused to participate in the National Day of Mourning and threatened to raise the flag outside the statehouse to full mast.

James Earl Ray Flees to No Avail

James Earl Ray was a prison escapee, a fugitive of the law when he killed MLK. His crime led to a two-month-long chase across five countries and cost more money than the conman was worth.

The authorities caught up with the assassin in London and brought him back to the US, where his fate was sealed with a 99-year sentence.

MLK’s death was one of the cogs in a wheel that forced the United States to change history. Learn more about this assassination and the other political assassinations of the 1960s at Kennedys and King. Contribute facts about James Earl Ray, Lee Harvey Oswald, causes of the Civil Rights Movement, and other people and events related to the political murders in the ’60s.

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