Posted April 3, 2008 – The Rev. Martin Luther King was cut down April 4 when a gunshot slammed into his jaw and spine while he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.

Almost everyone can recall where they were when they learned the news their beloved civil rights leader had been shot.  But the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr., he told me it’s a day he’ll never forget.

“I saw him lying on the balcony in a poll of blood and that scene never leaves my mind,” he recalled. 

Jackson remembers turbulent times surrounding King and the magnitude of the pressures and expectations were taking a toll on the young minister.  He reflected on the genesis of King’s last speech at Mason Temple, Church of God and Christ.

  “That night, he began to talk about walking back through the pages of history, like he was kind of going through a kind of reflection, assessment, projection, Jackson said.
Jackson and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, King’s lieutenant in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, accompanied him that night.

“I think none of us could have known the level of intensity of the threat that he felt and he knew was taking place from the government, and from other forces,” Jackson said.
King delivered the one of his most memorable speeches: “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
James Earl Ray, a petty criminal and prison escapee was charged with King’s murder. Ray pleaded guilty and died in prison in 1998.

There continues to be speculation about who was responsible for the assassination of King; conspiracy theories continue today.   But Jackson believes so many factors contributed the final act by the gunman that Ray couldn’t have acted alone. 

“Dr. King was the most hated man in America by that time. Our government turned against him, suggesting he was engaged in treason. The [Lyndon] Johnson machinery turned on him; the press turned against him; civil rights leaders were afraid to get close to him.  So he was feeling lots of pain, lots of isolation; so the climate was set,” Jackson told me.

Hear more on the 40th anniversary of King’s death and the conspiracy theories by clicking on the links below.

See the Videos:

MLK’s Death: The Conspiracy Theories
 
MLK Assassination: What Really Happened

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