With support from the University of Richmond

History News Network

History News Network puts current events into historical perspective. Subscribe to our newsletter for new perspectives on the ways history continues to resonate in the present. Explore our archive of thousands of original op-eds and curated stories from around the web. Join us to learn more about the past, now.

The enduring legacy of Martin Luther King (as recalled by his son)

Martin Luther King III was just 10 years old when his father was shot on the balcony outside room 306, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, on 4 April, 1968. Now 50 years old, he remembers the day vividly.

"My siblings and I were watching the evening news at home in Atlanta and we heard 'Dr Martin Luther King Jr has been shot,'" says King III, who will lead a march tomorrow to that motel, now home to the National Civil Rights Museum.

"We ran to our mother's room, and she was preparing to leave because she had already had a call to say my father had been shot and she should get to Memphis as quickly as possible. She didn't know how bad the injury was."
Read entire article at http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk