Martin Luther King Jr Last Speech Analysis

On April 4th, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on a balcony at the Loraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was shot with a high powered rifle from an estimated 250 feet away. He was shot in the neck and spinal cord and died within the first hour of the inflicted wound. Although he already had the impression he was not going to live for much longer as he quoted in his last speech he says “I may not get there with you”(King) as he refers to he might not live to see his work’s outcome. His death sparked outrage within the community with race riots, most of the nation grieved for his death including Political leaders and government officials, and future pushes in civil rights.
After the news spread that King had been killed outrage …show more content…
He was the most influential figure in the civil rights movement and his death really showed the world how bad racism was. The amount of support he had and the amount of grief the country had at the time was far more than people happy with him dying. His death brought out political official such as Robert Kennedy a presidential candidate was on his way to a Campaign rally when he heard the news. He gave a speech in the city Indianapolis where he states “Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love……and justice” (Kennedy) in Kennedy’s speech he addresses issues of violence that could occur since Martin Luther King Jr. was such an important person and meant so much to the pro-equality American citizens. He also addresses the values of Rev. King and how important it is to keep the peaceful values he followed because violence wasn’t the answer. President Lyndon Johnson made April 7th, 1968 the day to mourn him and sent the Vice president Hubert Humphrey to attend on his behalf. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death was for the push for Civil rights and his legacy is the fuel for new activists to continue his …show more content…
Many allegations of him having affairs with women. As the FBI was wiretapping and keeping surveillance of Rev. King. They tried to display Martin Luther King Jr. as unfaithful husband and undermine him as a leader. They also tried to claim he was a communist with some connection he had such as Stanley Levison who was a New York attorney who was involved with the Communist Party. This connection was the only evidence and it did not have enough to prove that Martin Luther King was a Communist. People wanted Rev. King disproven as a good leader and yet even with the extramarital sex affairs and the allegations against him; he was a great leader and has done a lot of good for civil rights and his death is remembered throughout the