It was attended by many of the nation’s political and civil rights leaders, including Jacqueline Kennedy, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, and Ralph Bunche. King’s funeral service was held the following day in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church. On 8 April King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and other family members joined thousands of participants in a march in Memphis honoring King and supporting the sanitation workers. In the following days, public libraries, museums, schools, and businesses were closed, and the Academy Awards ceremony and numerous sporting events were postponed. Johnson called for a national day of mourning to be observed on 7 April. Joseph’s Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead at 7:05 P.M. Others on the balcony pointed across the street toward the rear of a boarding house on South Main Street where the shot seemed to have originated. SCLC aides rushed to him, and Ralph Abernathy cradled King’s head. An assassin fired a single shot that caused severe wounds to the lower right side of his face. As he prepared to leave the Lorraine Motel for a dinner at the home of Memphis minister Samuel “Billy ” Kyles, King stepped out onto the balcony of room 306 to speak with Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) colleagues standing in the parking area below. King had arrived in Tennessee on Wednesday, 3 April, to prepare for a march the following Monday on behalf of striking Memphis sanitation workers. During King’s funeral a tape recording was played in which King spoke of how he wanted to be remembered after his death: “I’d like somebody to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others ” (King, “ Drum Major Instinct, ” 85). James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old escaped fugitive, later confessed to the crime and was sentenced to a 99-year prison term. News of King’s assassination prompted major outbreaks of racial violence, resulting in more than 40 deaths nationwide and extensive property damage in over 100 American cities. on Thursday, 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was shot dead while standing on a balcony outside his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.At 6:05 P.M. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed Justice Department says there is still no proof that anyone other than James Earl Ray was behind the murder of the civil rights leader. 8, 1999: Jury rules King was the victim of a murder conspiracy. 15, 1999: Trial begins on the King family's suit. 2, 1998: The King family files a wrongful death suit against Jowers and "other unknown conspirators."
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