Martin Luther King Jr.

===Aftermath===
{{Further|King assassination riots}}
The assassination led to [[Mass racial violence in the United States|race riots]] in [[1968 Washington, D.C. riots|Washington, D.C.]], [[1968 Chicago riots|Chicago]], [[Baltimore riot of 1968|Baltimore]], [[Louisville riots of 1968|Louisville]], [[1968 Kansas City riot|Kansas City]], and dozens of other cities.<ref name=BBC>{{cite news| title=1968: Martin Luther King shot dead| work=On this Day| publisher=BBC (2006)| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2453000/2453987.stm| access-date=August 27, 2008| date=April 4, 1968| archive-date=March 11, 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190311175917/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/4/newsid_2453000/2453987.stm| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Risen|first=Clay|title=A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination|year=2009|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-0-470-17710-5|url=https://archive.org/details/nationonfireamer00rise}}</ref><ref name="202004xxSmithsonianMagazineClayRisen">{{cite news |last1=Risen |first1=Clay |title=The Unmaking of the President |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-unmaking-of-the-president-31577203/ |access-date=January 24, 2021 |date=April 2008 |publisher=Smithsonian Magazine |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201119112605/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-unmaking-of-the-president-31577203/ |archive-date=November 19, 2020}}</ref> Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was on his way to [[Indianapolis]] for a campaign rally when he was informed of King's death. He gave [[Robert F. Kennedy's speech on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|a short, improvised speech]] to the gathering of supporters informing them of the tragedy and urging them to continue King's ideal of nonviolence.<ref>Klein, Joe (2006). ''Politics Lost: How American Democracy was Trivialized by People Who Think You're Stupid''. New York: Doubleday. p. 6. {{ISBN|978-0-385-51027-1}}</ref> The following day, he delivered [[On the Mindless Menace of Violence|a prepared response]] in Cleveland.<ref>{{cite book|last=Newfield|first=Jack|author-link=Jack Newfield|title=Robert Kennedy: A Memoir|publisher=[[Plume (publisher)|Plume]]|edition=3rd|year=1988|isbn=978-0-452-26064-1|page=[https://archive.org/details/robertkennedyme000newf/page/248 248]|url=https://archive.org/details/robertkennedyme000newf/page/248}}</ref> [[James Farmer Jr.]] and other civil rights leaders also called for non-violent action, while the more militant Stokely Carmichael called for a more forceful response.<ref name="1968 Year In Review, UPI.com">{{cite news|url=http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1968/Martin-Luther-King-Assasination/12303153093431-4/ |title=1968 Year In Review |work=United Press International |access-date=November 30, 2010 |archive-date=October 21, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021014925/http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1968/Martin-Luther-King-Assasination/12303153093431-4/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The city of Memphis quickly settled the strike on terms favorable to the sanitation workers.<ref name="AFSCME-WEB3">{{cite web|title=AFSCME Wins in Memphis|publisher=[[AFSCME]] The Public Employee|date=April 1968|url=http://www.afscme.org/about/1533.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061102004802/http://www.afscme.org/about/1533.cfm|archive-date=November 2, 2006|access-date=January 16, 2012}}</ref>

The plan to set up a [[shantytown]] in Washington, D.C., was carried out soon after the April 4 assassination. Criticism of King's plan was subdued in the wake of his death, and the SCLC received an unprecedented wave of donations to carry it out. The campaign officially began in Memphis, on May 2, at the hotel where King was murdered.<ref name=McKnight>{{cite book|last=McKnight|first=Gerald D.|title=The last crusade: Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI, and the poor people's campaign|year=1998|publisher=Westview Press|isbn=0-8133-3384-9|chapter='The Poor People Are Coming!' 'The Poor People Are Coming!'|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813333847|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780813333847}}</ref> Thousands of demonstrators arrived on the [[National Mall]] and stayed for six weeks, establishing a camp they called "[[Poor People's Campaign|Resurrection City]]".<ref name="Engler15Jan10">{{cite news|last=Engler |first=Mark |title=Dr. Martin Luther King's Economics: Through Jobs, Freedom |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/dr-martin-luther-kings-economics-through-jobs-freedom# |access-date=July 19, 2012 |newspaper=The Nation |date=January 15, 2010 |archive-date=February 21, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130221105032/http://www.thenation.com/article/dr-martin-luther-kings-economics-through-jobs-freedom |url-status=live }}</ref>

President Johnson tried to quell the riots by making telephone calls to civil rights leaders, mayors and governors across the United States and told politicians that they should warn the police against the unwarranted use of force.<ref name="202004xxSmithsonianMagazineClayRisen" /> However, "I'm not getting through," Johnson told his aides. "They're all holing up like generals in a dugout getting ready to watch a war."<ref name="202004xxSmithsonianMagazineClayRisen" /> Johnson declared April 7 a national day of mourning for King.{{sfn|Manheimer|2004|p=97}}
Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]] attended King's funeral on behalf of the President, as there were fears that Johnson's presence might incite protests and perhaps violence.<ref>{{cite book|page= [https://archive.org/details/dixiesdirtysecre00jame/page/169 169]|last= Dickerson|first= James|publisher= ME Sharpe|year= 1998|isbn= 0-7656-0340-3|title= Dixie's Dirty Secret: The True Story of how the Government, the Media, and the Mob Conspired to Combat Immigration and the Vietnam Antiwar Movement|url= https://archive.org/details/dixiesdirtysecre00jame/page/169}}
</ref> At his widow's request, King's last sermon at [[Ebenezer Baptist Church (Atlanta, Georgia)|Ebenezer Baptist Church]], given on February 4, 1968, was played at the funeral:<ref>{{cite book| title =The American Book of Days| url =https://archive.org/details/americanbookofda00hatc| url-access =registration| last1=Hatch |first1=Jane M. |first2=George William|last2=Douglas|publisher=Wilson|year=1978 |page= [https://archive.org/details/americanbookofda00hatc/page/321 321]| isbn =978-0824205935}}
</ref> 
{{blockquote|I'd like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others. I'd like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody.
I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day that I did try in my life to visit those who were in prison. And I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity.

Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major. Say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.<ref name="1968 Year In Review, UPI.com"/><ref>{{cite news|title=IBM advertisement|date=January 14, 1985|newspaper=[[The Dallas Morning News]]|page=13A}}</ref>}} 

His good friend Mahalia Jackson sang his favorite hymn, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord", at the funeral.<ref>{{cite book|title=A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America|last=Werner|first=Craig|page=[https://archive.org/details/changeisgonnacom00wern_0/page/9 9]|isbn=0-472-03147-3|publisher=University of Michigan Press|year=2006|url=https://archive.org/details/changeisgonnacom00wern_0/page/9}}</ref> The assassination helped to spur the enactment of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968]].<ref name="202004xxSmithsonianMagazineClayRisen" />
Two months after King's death, [[James Earl Ray]]—on the loose from a previous prison escape—was captured at [[London Heathrow Airport]] while trying to reach white-ruled [[Rhodesia]] on a false Canadian passport. He was using the alias Ramon George Sneyd.<ref>{{cite book|title= Martin Luther King, Jr. |url= https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00ling |url-access= registration |last= Ling|first= Peter J. |page= [https://archive.org/details/martinlutherking00ling/page/296 296]| publisher= Routledge| year =2002| isbn= 0-415-21664-8}}
</ref> Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder. He confessed on March 10, 1969, though he recanted this confession three days later.<ref name=extradite>{{cite book|last1= Flowers|first1=R. Barri|first2=H. Loraine|last2=Flowers|page= 38|title= Murders in the United States: Crimes, Killers And Victims Of The Twentieth Century|publisher=McFarland|year=2004 |isbn=0-7864-2075-8}}
</ref> On the advice of his attorney [[Percy Foreman]], Ray pleaded guilty to avoid the possibility of the death penalty. He was sentenced to a 99-year prison term.<ref name=extradite/><ref name=cbs>{{cite web|title=James Earl Ray Dead At 70|date=April 23, 1998|publisher=CBS|url=http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/04/23/national/main7900.shtml|access-date=June 12, 2008|archive-date=November 14, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114172759/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/1998/04/23/national/main7900.shtml|url-status=live}}</ref> Ray later claimed a man he met in [[Montreal]], Quebec, with the alias "Raoul" was involved and that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy.<ref>{{cite book| page=[https://archive.org/details/compsta00unit/page/17 17] |author= House Select Committee on Assassinations|title=Compilation of the Statements of James Earl Ray: Staff Report|publisher=The Minerva Group |isbn=0-89875-297-3|year=2001|url=https://archive.org/details/compsta00unit/page/17}}
</ref><ref name=davis>
{{cite book|title= Assassination: 20 Assassinations that Changed the World|page=105 |last=Davis|first=Lee|year=1995|publisher=JG Press|isbn= 1-57215-235-4}}
</ref> He spent the remainder of his life attempting, unsuccessfully, to withdraw his guilty plea and secure the trial he never had.<ref name=cbs/> Ray died in 1998 at age 70.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/24/us/james-earl-ray-70-killer-of-dr-king-dies-in-nashville.html|title=James Earl Ray, 70, Killer of Dr. King, Dies in Nashville|first=Lawrence Van|last=Gelder|date=April 24, 1998|newspaper=[[NYTimes.com]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140210120821/https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/24/us/james-earl-ray-70-killer-of-dr-king-dies-in-nashville.html |archive-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>