On the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination

Rather than write something new today, on the anniversary of the great Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, here are some snippets from and links to past entries on this subject.

Martin Luther King Assassination Anniversary goes nearly unnoticed

Today, there was little coverage of an important assassination 36 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was shot by a sniper as he stepped out of his hotel room onto a public-facing balcony.

Unmentioned in the scant coverage was the fact that in 1999, a jury found Loyd Jowers and "others unknown" guilty of conspiracy in the assassination of MLK, and concluded that Ray was not the shooter....

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Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King

On April 4, 1967 [one year to the day before his death], Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a watershed speech, in which, for the first time, he spoke out against the war in Vietnam. Many of his followers encouraged him to continue his focus on civil rights, but the more King learned, the more the immorality of our actions in Vietnam ate at his heart. I want to share with you a particularly relevant part of that speech, which could as easily have been directed at our war in present-day Iraq...

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Martin Luther King, RIP

...History will judge us by how we treat his memory, and his death. For years, the government told us a lone nut, James Earl Ray killed the man. In fact, the government still holds to that. But as in the cases of JFK and RFK, that conclusion is simply not supported by the evidence.

Why would James Earl Ray plant a gun 10 minutes in advance of using it? A store owner saw a man leave a bundle in front of his store minutes before King was killed. AFTER King was killed, the bundle was opened to reveal a rifle with James Earl Ray's fingerprints on it...

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Dark enough to see the stars

38 years ago tonight, Martin Luther King gave the last speech of his life, and it was a great one. Reading it tonight, after my second viewing of V for Vendetta, it rang even more true. What's becoming clear to me is that the great hope of mankind is collective action...

[R]eading Martin Luther King's words again tonight, I was inspired. The lesson is clear. We must either stand together or fall separately...

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Bobby Kennedy's speech upon the death of Martin Luther King

38 years ago today, Bobby Kennedy got off his campaign plane in Indiana to find, to his horror, that Martin Luther King had just been shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Warned that, for his safety, Bobby Kennedy should not go out that night, Bobby did what he always did. He ingored the advice of all but his conscience. And his conscience told him he had a responsibility to the people of Indianapolis. He had something important to say.

He improvised what is now considered one of the 100 best speeches ever. His own pain from the loss of his own brother five years earlier was palpable, and compelling. Joe Scarborough, a right-wing commentator who attributes his start in politics in part to the inspiration of Bobby Kennedy, noted that as riots burned fires in many cities that night, as the African American population wailed in grief at its collective loss, Bobby Kennedy managed to keep the peace in Indianapolis...


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In Dire Need of Creative Extremists

It's been hard trying to pick a favorite speech or piece of writing by Dr. Martin Luther King for today...In past years, I've quoted heavily from his landmark speech against the war in Vietnam, or his moving "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech. I and everyone has quoted from "I have a dream."

But today, I think we're in dire need of leadership for the protests that must occur, if we are to reclaim the soul of our country...So I present you...a profound, and profoundly important letter he wrote to fellow pasters from the Birmington Jail...

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And lastly, please check out the links on my Martin Luther King page at the Real History Archives. Lots of links to articles, audio of King delivering speeches, and much more. You can also read a short summary of the "official version" of how he was killed, and the evidence that contradicts that.

America is indeed in dire need of creative extremists who have our best interests at heart, who can speak truth to power, and not with anger, but with passionate, activating eloquence. We need another Dr. King. And we need for him not to be cut down by another covert bullet.