Remembering MLK, Jr.

Today is the day we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. and all that he did to bring civil rights to black Americans and, more generally, civil justice for all Americans through is anti-poverty and anti-Vietnam War campaigns.

His efforts, the hard won results those efforts produced, and the inspiration they give to millions today are what I feel are best to remember about King.

Another thing that I think is important to remember is that for his actions, King was ultimately assassinated. This happened in Memphis, TN on April 4, 1968. Someone or some group of people did not like that King was rallying the poor, the working class and the minorities of the United States into an organzised resistance against inequality, injustice, poverty and war...even if he championed a peacful protest model.

My wife and I visitied Memphis a few years ago, and among other things, we visited the site where King was killed. Today, that motel is now a Smithsonian civil rights museum. The combinatio of the somber site of King's murder with the soaring monument to what his and others' efforsts produced for civil rights made for a very compelling experience.

Below are two pictures I took while we were there. The first one shows the hotel as it was when King was killed by a gunman shooting from a building across the street. He was shot just outside his room on the balcony just behind where the white wreath not hangs. The lower pictures is the original sign for the Loraine Hotel.

MLK Remembered

Sadly, today is the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

The murder happened in Memphis, TN on April 4, 1968. Below is a picture of where this occurred that I took on a trip to Memphis in 2003. King was killed as he stood just behind where the wreath hangs today at the now closed Lorraine Motel. The shooter, James Earl Ray, fired from building across the street.

Although I was still a year and a little more from being born when this happened, I've learned a lot about Dr. King in my growing up and adult years - what he stood for, why, how he went about achieving his goals and more. This is the true testament to the man and all of those who followed him and others to really change the United States for the better.

Most people know of King's "I have a dream" speech and rightly so. However, the man did a lot more - and some would say more "threatening" to the establishment than that. For example, if you haven't done so, check into the March on Washington he arranged, look into his opposition to the Vietnam War and read about his Poor People's Campaign.  These were actions that crossed race lines and truly started to shake the established, traditional, conservative and moneyed interests country - for good in my opinion.

Which is why King knew it was all too possible that he might be killed. 

Unfortunately, here we are now on the anniversary of his assassination. 

It's a good time to not only reflect on what King accomplished, but why he was killed. Who would have wanted that? Why? Who benefited from his murder?