The Assassination of Martin Luther King. Racism and the Growing Cancer Blighting U.S. Foreign Policy
part 3 of a series on the Great Assassinations of the 60s
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“I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Martin Luther King (April 4, 1967) [1]
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If the death of Bobby Kennedy marked the end of the dream of the sixties (see the Robert F. Kennedy chapter of this series), the death two months previously signaled the beginning of the end.
On the early evening of April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine hotel in Memphis, Tennessee when a single bullet plowed through the breeze and struck the man of peace and compassion with devastating effects. Rushed to the hospital, he was pronounced dead an hour later. [2]
In the ten days following news of King’s death, 200 cities across the nation saw looting, arson, and sniper fire. Peter Levy wrote in The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s that followed that the United States experienced its greatest wave of social unrest since the Civil War.” Fully 3,500 people were injured, 43 were killed and 27,000 were arrested. [3]
While the Baptist Minister subscribed to non-violence, between the loss of a civil rights giant and the widespread segregation and poverty affecting blacks, such an expression of outrage is understandable.
Yet, Dr. King was in the process of doing more than demanding an end to racial inequality. He went to Memphis to stand with and support striking sanitation workers. He was also intent later in the month of April to lead a massive Nonviolent Poor People’s March on Washington involving impoverished Americans of all races. [4][5]
And more critically, he was speaking out against the growing cancer blighting American foreign policy – the war in Vietnam. His first, and arguably one of his most important speeches was heard at the Riverside Church in New York City – exactly one year before his assassination![6]
The third assassination in our list this month details not only the problems with the official story of what and who brought down this legendary figure, it also outlines the issues among a certain population who find themselves at odds with the direction King was leading this country.
Taking us through part 3 of this epic assassination series on the Global Research News Hour, once again, is the researcher and investigator James DiEugenio. The cliff-hanger he leaves us with at the end of this show will lead directly to the fourth and final figure in our series: Malcolm X!
James DiEugenio has an MA in Contemporary American History from California State University Northridge. He authored the book Destiny Betrayed, probing the Garrison investigation of the JFK assassination, expanded in 2012. He also wrote Reclaiming Parkland in 2013 expanded again in 2016 and then re-issued again with additional material in the 2018 book The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today. He co-authored the book The Assassinations: Probe Magazine on JFK, MLK, RFK and Malcolm X.
Mr DiEugenio also has a website: kennedysandking.com with materials related to one or more of the assassination targets.
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Notes:
- From Beyond Vietnam. Speech at the Riverside Church in New York City. www.jfkmoon.org/mlk-vietnam.html#p7EPMc1_1
- www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination#:~:text=Martin%20Luther%20King%2C%20Jr.%20was%20assassinated%20in%20Memphis%2C,that%20sent%20shock%20waves%20reverberating%20around%20the%20world.
- www.smithsonianmag.com/history/martin-luther-king-jrs-assassination-sparked-uprisings-cities-across-america-180968665/
- www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-assassination#:~:text=Martin%20Luther%20King%2C%20Jr.%20was%20assassinated%20in%20Memphis%2C,that%20sent%20shock%20waves%20reverberating%20around%20the%20world.
- www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/04/mlk-last-march/555953/
- sojo.net/articles/mlk-50-american-jubilee-year-truth-transformation
