Lorraine Motel

April 4, 1968 was a day that changed the nation. After a series of meetings, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was sleeping late at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, in a room with Reverend Ralph Abernathy. At 5:30, Reverend S.B. Kyles arrived to take them to dinner.

King emerged from Room 306 at about 6:00 and chatted with friends Jesse Epps, Ben Branch and Reverend Kyles. He leaned over the balcony to greet the many supporters gathered in the courtyard just to get a glimpse of the great civil rights leader. By 6:03, King lay dying, the victim of a sniper's bullet.

A memorial erected at the spot where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. (Date: 1968-04-04)

April 15, 1968 edition of El Malcriado: The Voice of the Farm Worker, commemorating Martin Luther King. (Creator: Zermeno, A.; Date: 1968-04-15)