from Statista.com
— this post authored by Dyfed Loesche
50 years ago, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Martin Luther King was gunned down by an assailant in a motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
His campaign of non-violent resistance to further equal rights for all citizens in the United States, no matter the color of their skin, made him one of the most iconic popular leaders in American history.
King was a Baptist minister and drew on his faith for his campaigns. He held his best known and often quoted speech “I Have A Dream” at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 as part of the “March on Washington”, with a quarter of a million people attending. The father of four children, he had with his wife Coretta Scott King, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, in 1964.
He was gunned down by racist and convicted criminal James Earl Ray who was apprehended two months after King’s murder and served 29 years in prison until his death. The FBI under its notorious director J. Edgar Hoover tried to brand King a communist and had him observed. King forcefully denied having anything to do with the communist movement, which by default is staunchly atheist.
You will find more infographics at Statista.
