At a motel in Memphis, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. The 39-year-old civil rights leader was in the city to support an African American sanitation workers strike. One day earlier, King delivered his now-famous “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, the last public address of his life.
Newspapers across the country led with the assassination the next day. Here’s a small sampling:
New York Times
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Washington Post
New York Post
