Who
Killed Martin Luther King?
On
April 4
th, 1968 in Memphis Tennessee, one of the most influential
civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. Most believe that
King was killed by James Earl Ray, but theorist and King’s family have their
doubts with this verdict. Throughout King’s mission as a civil rights leader he endured all kinds
of sets back from the FBI. The FBI tried to oppress King by exposing information
that the FBI attained illegally. On October 3, 1964 J Edgar Hoover ordered the FBI
to wire King’s phone lines within his home, offices, and the hotels he was
staying during that time. After the FBI attained information regarding King’s personal
life, alleged association with communists and sex life, the government then
published some of this information. Theorists believe the reason the information was released was to protect the country and to destroy the Civil
Rights leader. This exploitation of the information did not have the reaction
of the people the government originally thought. King still had a strong
following and support system. After the reveal of the information King was still a powerful civil rights leader the FBI needed to take a more severe action
and kill Dr. King according to some theorists.
As mentioned
prior, King’s close family still believe to this day believe that Ray was innocent
and that the Mafia and the FBI had set him up in order to appear guilty. One
may observe the previous statement in the following quote from Bernice King
(the youngest of King’s four children): “It pains my heart that James Earl Ray
had to spend his life in prison for things he didn’t do.” From this quote one
may observe that King’s daughter believes Ray is innocent. King’s other three children
believe James Earl Ray was innocent. Another member of King’s family who
believed that Ray was innocent was his wife Coretta. Until her death in 2006
Coretta tried to have more information regarding her husband’s murder released
to the public. In fact, in 1999 Coretta and the remainder of the King family
filed a civil suit to force the government to release more information. Once the
trial was over, the Memphis jury ruled the following: “the local, state, and
federal governments were Liable for King’s death.” According the Washington Post
the full transcript of the trial still remains posted on the King Center’s
website. King’s family are not the only individuals who believe Ray was innocent.
One can observe this in the following quote from Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga) provided
by the Washington Post: “I think there was a major conspiracy to remove Doctor
King from the American scene among government officials and the FBI. I don’t know
what happened, but the truth of what happened to Dr. King should be made available
for history’s sake. Lewis, is not the only public and government official who
believe that Ray was innocent. Andrew Young a former UN Ambassador and Atlanta Mayor who was at the Lorraine Motel with King when he was assassinated believes
it is not possible Ray killed King. One may observe this in the following quote
from Young provided by Washington Post: “I would not accept the fact that James
Earl Ray pulled the trigger, and that’s all that matters. King’s death came
after the killings of JFK and Malcolm X and just months before the slaying of
Robert F. Kennedy. We were living in the period of assassinations.”From this quote one can observe that Young believes there are connections between these famous public officials, and indicates that hints towards government involvement. As one can
observe, the answer to the question: “
who killed Martin
Luther King Jr” is a very difficult question to answer. Was it Ray? Was it the FBI? Many pieces of the puzzle are pointing
to Ray’s innocence and the FBI being responsible and framing Ray. Who do you
think is assassin in Martin Luther King’s murder?
I have attached
the link to the website that has the complete transcript of the 1999 Court Case:
Works
Cited
Jackman, Tom.
“Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.? His Family Believes James Earl Ray Was
Framed.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 30 Mar. 2018,
www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/30/who-killed-martin-luther-king-jr-his-family-believes-james-earl-ray-was-framed/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.a31aa4e63882.
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