The Lorraine Motel - site of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr
The Lorraine Motel, located at 450 Mulberry Street downtown Memphis, is where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. On April 4, 1968, he stepped out on the balcony outside Room 306 where he stayed and as King turned around to return to his room, a bullet hit him from behind and struck him down.
James Earl Ray was convicted for having shot him from the brick building across the street. However, he kept claiming he was innocent, strengthening the conspiracy theories.
The Lorraine Motel also holds a special place in music history. Stax recording studio was located nearby and their artist often stayed at the Lorraine. Some of the well-known singers who stayed there are Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, and Wilson Pickett.
It’s said that a few classic songs from the 60s’ where written here too, such as In the Midnight Hour and Knock on Wood.
Martin Luther King interview 1963, CBC Special
uncut raw footage:
Martin Luther King Memorial ~ Washington DC
The Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC is a fitting tribute to Dr. King's leadership in the Civil Rights movement: in solid granite, his legacy is cemented in the tapestry America.
From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 during the March on Washington, Dr. King imagined an end to racial inequality in his I have a Dream speech -- a speech held as one of the greatest pieces of American oratory ever to be spoken.
This video is a bonus feature on Finley-Holiday Films' Washington DC DVD. Available on location in Washington DC and from
Martin Luther King, Jr. likeness used by permission of
ESTATE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
Finley Holiday Productions
DV-26-6
Atlanta: Martin Luther King Gravesite
The Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park includes Martin Luther King Jr.'s boyhood home, the original Ebenezer Baptist Church where King was baptized and as a pastor, King, and his wife Coretta Scott King's gravesite.
These places are critical to the interpretation of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy as a leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.
Annual events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in January typically draws large crowds. Speakers have included Presidents of the United States, national and local politicians, and civil rights leaders. Remembrances are also held during Black History Month (February), and on the anniversary of King's April 4, 1968, assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.
End portion of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. last speech
Expressions of faith purpose and resolve. see more in a playlist of resistance and higher vision at:
This one recdoreded one day before his assassination with improved sound on news report.
martin luther king.jr slavery# equal rights# freedom of speech# mlk# i have a dream# justice#
martin luther king.jr# mlk# i have a dream# civil rights# civil rights movement# justice# peace#
Rick Steves' Luther and the Reformation
Rick Steves' Europe © 2016 | Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther kicked off the Protestant Reformation, which contributed to the birth of our modern age. In this one-hour special — filmed on location in Europe — Rick Steves tells the story of a humble monk who lived a dramatic life. Rick visits key sites relating to the Reformation (including Erfurt, Wittenberg, and Rome) and explores the complicated political world of 16th-century Europe — from indulgences to iconoclasts, and from the printing press to the Counter-Reformation. It’s a story of power, rebellion, and faith that you’ll never forget. #ricksteves #ricksteveseurope #martinluther
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Rick Steves, America's most respected authority on European travel, writes European travel guidebooks, and hosts travel shows on public television and public radio.
Memphis: Lorraine Motel
Martin Luther King Jr., an American clergyman and civil rights leader, was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.
On April 3, King returned to Memphis to address a gathering at the Mason Temple. His airline flight to Memphis was delayed by a bomb threat but he made his planned speech. King delivered the speech, now known as the I've Been to the Mountaintop address. As he neared the close, he referred to the bomb threat:
And then I got to Memphis. And some began to say the threats... or talk about the threats that were out. What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!
On Thursday, April 4, 1968, King was staying in room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.
King had gone out onto the balcony and was standing near his room when he was struck at 6:01 p.m. by a single .30-06 bullet fired from a Remington Model 760 rifle.
Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man, later believed to be James Earl Ray, fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel.
King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where doctors opened his chest and performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
On April 8, King's widow, Coretta Scott King, together with the couple's four small children, led a crowd estimated at 40,000 in a silent march through the streets of Memphis to honor the fallen leader and support the cause of the city's black sanitation workers.
The next day, funeral rites for King were held in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. The service at Ebenezer Baptist Church was nationally televised. A funeral procession transported King's body for 3.5 miles through the streets of Atlanta, followed by more than 100,000 mourners, from the church to his alma mater of Morehouse College. A second service was held there before the burial.
A crowd of 300,000 attended his funeral on April 9. Vice President Hubert Humphrey attended the funeral. At his widow's request, King's last sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church was played at the funeral; it was a recording of his Drum Major sermon, given on February 4, 1968. In that sermon, he asked that, at his funeral, no mention of his awards and honors be made, but that it be said he tried to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, be right on the war question, and love and serve humanity.
James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, in London at Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States, and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful; he died in prison on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70.
Martin Luther King Jr. Tombstone (2012)
This is where Martin Luther King & Coretta Scott's bodies have laid since 2006, when Coretta died. This was part of my personal trip to Atlanta/
I took this on September 16, 2012.
I've Been to the Mountain Top
Martin Luther King's last speech was strangely prophetic as he visits his hopes for a long life. On the following day he was assassinated.
MLK assassination site in Memphis
Somber. Reminds us of what nut-job racists will do.
audio of Martin Luther King's speech
I Have a Dream
Biking Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard to Xavier University, New Orleans
From St Charles Ave, biking Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd to Washington Ave and finally Xavier University of Louisiana.
For Black History Month
Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world, declaring eternal opposition to poverty, racism and militarism.
So let us stand in this convention knowing that on some positions; cowardice asks the questions, is it safe; expediency asks the question, is it politic; vanity asks the question, is it popular, but conscious asks the question, is it right. And on some positions, it is necessary for the moral individual to take a stand that is neither safe, nor politic nor popular; but he must do it because it is right.
- Martin Luther King, Jr., during the August 31, 1967 The Three Evils of Society speech
What a great day to go ride a bike. #CycleNOLA
Recorded January 2022
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, Washington DC
22. View from window where Dr Martin Luther King Junior was shot at the Lorraine Hotel, Memphis
Adventure motorcyclist, philosopher, seeker of the peace, soldier of fortune, all round good guy, bears wrestled, tightropes walked, equations solved, virgins enlightened, tigers castrated, bars dried, governments run, test rockets flown, worlds second greatest lover, outrageous lier, with a Lust For Life
THE ULTIMATE MEASURE OF A MAN QUOTE: Martin Luther King JR. Memorial
The ceremony was postponed but that did not stop me or thousands of others who saw the sun come out, after the Hurricane Irene Storm. It was the perfect day for a walk in Washington DC. You can see more at:
Birmingham: Letter from Birmingham Jail
The Letter from Birmingham Jail, also known as the Letter from Birmingham City Jail and The Negro Is Your Brother, is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King Jr.
The letter, written during the 1963 Birmingham campaign, was widely published, and became an important text for the American Civil Rights Movement.
The Birmingham campaign began on April 3, 1963, with coordinated marches and sit-ins against racism and racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama. The nonviolent campaign was coordinated by the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights (ACMHR) and King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins issued a blanket injunction against parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing. Leaders of the campaign announced they would disobey the ruling. On April 12, King was roughly arrested with SCLC activist Ralph Abernathy, ACMHR and SCLC official Fred Shuttlesworth and other marchers, while thousands of African Americans dressed for Good Friday looked on.
King was met with unusually harsh conditions in the Birmingham jail. An ally smuggled in a newspaper from April 12, which contained A Call for Unity, a statement by eight white Alabama clergymen against King and his methods. The letter provoked King, and he began to write a response on the newspaper itself. King writes in Why We Can't Wait: Begun on the margins of the newspaper in which the statement appeared while I was in jail, the letter was continued on scraps of writing paper supplied by a friendly black trusty, and concluded on a pad my attorneys were eventually permitted to leave me.
The letter responded to several criticisms made by the A Call for Unity clergymen. As an activist challenging an entrenched social system, King argued on legal, political, and historical grounds. As an African American, he spoke of the country's oppression of black people, including himself. As an orator, he used many persuasive techniques to reach the hearts and minds of his audience. Altogether, King's letter was a powerful defense of the motivations, tactics, and goals of the Birmingham campaign and the Civil Rights Movement more generally.
King began the letter by responding to the criticism that he and his fellow activists were outsiders causing trouble in the streets of Birmingham. To this, King referred to his responsibility as the leader of the SCLC, which had numerous affiliated organizations throughout the South.
The clergymen also disapproved of tensions created by public actions such as sit-ins and marches. To this, King confirmed that he and his fellow demonstrators were indeed using nonviolent direct action in order to create constructive tension.
The clergymen also disapproved of the timing of public actions. In response, King said that recent decisions by the SCLC to delay its efforts for tactical reasons showed they were behaving responsibly. He also referred to the broader scope of history, when 'Wait' has almost always meant 'Never.'
Against the clergymen's assertion that demonstrations could be illegal, King argued that not only was civil disobedience justified in the face of unjust laws, but it was necessary and even patriotic.
Anticipating the claim that one cannot determine such things, he once again cites a Christian theologian, Thomas Aquinas, to the clergymen, saying that any law not rooted in eternal law and natural law is not just, while any law that uplifts human personality is.
King addressed the accusation that the Civil Rights Movement was extreme, first disputing the label but then accepting it.
King expressed general frustration with both white moderates and certain opposing forces in the Negro community.
In closing the letter, King criticized the clergy's praise of the Birmingham police for maintaining order nonviolently. Instead of the police, King praised the nonviolent demonstrators in Birmingham, for their sublime courage, their willingness to suffer and their amazing discipline in the midst of great provocation. One day the South will recognize its real heroes.
MLK Jr. Letter From a Birmingham Jail
MLK
Lorraine Motel - Memphis, Tennessee - National Civil Rights Museum
The Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Site of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968. Now home of the National Civil Rights Museum.
Lorraine Motel-Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Memorial
Lorrainne Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. The video starts with a view of the area (one of the buildings, don't know which one) where the assassin, James Earl Ray was when he made the fatal shot. Then I walked towards the railing where Martin Luther King Jr. was standing. The wreath marks the area.
DarKside Studio Mobile Productions-Experiment 1 Have Flip & a soundtrack recorded by a cellphone.
Ruff Mix soundtrack recorded at, DarKside Studio.