The full page banner headline in The New York Times the day following the assassination of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. read as follows: MARTIN LUTHER KING IS SLAIN IN MEMPHIS; A WHITE IS SUSPECTED; JOHNSON URGES CALM (Caldwell, 1968, A1). The headline does more than reveal the murder of King, for it reveals much about the civil rights issues that were threatening to divide America in two as no issues had done since the Civil War. The slain Civil Rights leader now has his own national holiday and African American leaders struggle to follow in his footsteps and achieve his dream of a colorblind culture. However, the nation was embroiled in bitter conflict over civil rights issues at the time of KingÆs assassination. Suddenly the champion of millions of blacks and whites alike and the leader of the Civil Rights movement was gone.
Robbed of the man who galvanized their community, outraged African Americans took to the streets to protest. Furor erupted among blacks in many cities, including riots in Memphis, Atlanta, Harlem, Los Angeles and many others as angry African Americans refused to heed the PresidentÆs call for calm. Officially, a white small-time hood named James Earl Ray had fired a single shot that hit king fatally in the head, from a bathroom window in a flophouse across the street. However, controversy has surrounding the King assassination as to the real identity of his assassin and the forces behind him more than any other assassination except for that of John F. KennedyÆs. Ray continued to maintain his innocence until the day he died. Judge Joe Brown, a Memphis court judge, exposed numerous errors in the case against and prosecution of Ray. The eyewitness who testified he saw someone leave the flophouse right after the shooting has recanted his testimony that the man was Ray. Other discrepancies abound in what has become one more assassination conspiracy theory in American culture, and the...