Memphis 50 years after MLK's death

Memphis 50 years after MLK's death

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A half century ago, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to march in support of the city's striking sanitation workers. It was the last trip the Baptist minister turned civil rights leader would make in the name of social justice.

On April 4, 1968, the day before the march was to begin, King, 39, was fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel by an avowed segregationist.

. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
The U.S. flag decorates a building in downtown Memphis.

A month earlier, King led the sanitation workers in a march through the Tennessee city that erupted in violent clashes. Even so, he vowed to return for a second march, convinced that the strikers would prevail in what he saw as a fight for economic justice.

King's commitment made a deep impression on the strikers.

. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
Henry Leach stands under a commemorative "I am a Man" sign at Ms. Girlees's Soul Food restaurant which he and his family own.

Henry Leach, who participated in the strike 50 years ago, said King came to the city for justice, not violence.

"He came to help us get what we wanted. Like I tell you, he became like a father to us," Leach, a former sanitation worker who participated in the strike 50 years ago, said recently.

. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst
A stained glass portrait of Bishop W.F. Ball, which hearkens back to the historic roots of Clayborn Temple, the church building where the striking workers met 50 years ago at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination.

The evening before the second march, the Nobel Peace Prize winner delivered his famous "I've Been to the Mountaintop" sermon at a local church.

Michael Halloway, a Memphis sanitation worker, said he believed that King would have mixed feelings about the current state of U.S. race relations.

"It makes me very sad because you know he came here to fight for the rights for us," he said. "It's getting better and better now, but it's got a long way to go," Halloway said.

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Slideshow

A street sign marks Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A street sign marks Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.

A car drives by the house, slated to be moved to a new location, where singer Aretha Franklin was born.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A car drives by the house, slated to be moved to a new location, where singer Aretha Franklin was born.

Sanitation worker Walter Coleman works a route on a truck decorated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Sanitation worker Walter Coleman works a route on a truck decorated to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination.

A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals honours Deandre Claxton who was killed in a shooting after an argument in May 2016.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A makeshift memorial of stuffed animals honours Deandre Claxton who was killed in a shooting after an argument in May 2016.

A statue of Rosa Parks sits at the front of a bus in the National Civil Rights Museum, on the site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A statue of Rosa Parks sits at the front of a bus in the National Civil Rights Museum, on the site of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed.

A man sits outside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed before he was shot and killed.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A man sits outside the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed before he was shot and killed.

People visit the reconstructed hotel room where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed before he was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

People visit the reconstructed hotel room where Martin Luther King Jr. stayed before he was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel.

People visit the reconstructed hotel room where Martin Luther King stayed before he was shot and killed.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

People visit the reconstructed hotel room where Martin Luther King stayed before he was shot and killed.

Rev. Earle Fisher (left), a Black Lives Matter leader, holds a planning meeting to mobilise activists for future rallies.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Rev. Earle Fisher (left), a Black Lives Matter leader, holds a planning meeting to mobilise activists for future rallies.

Henry Leach (left), talks with his granddaughters and his friend Clarence Christian (right) at his family's Ms. Girlees's Soul Food restaurant.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Henry Leach (left), talks with his granddaughters and his friend Clarence Christian (right) at his family's Ms. Girlees's Soul Food restaurant.

Food ready to be served at Ms. Girlee's Soul Food restaurant.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Food ready to be served at Ms. Girlee's Soul Food restaurant.

Activist Sweet Willie Wine looks through papers near his framed "Memphis Invaders" (a black power group) jacket. After spending time in prison as a young man, the assassination of Martin Luther King inspired Wine to dedicate his life to the Civil Rights movement. He was three blocks away from the Lorraine Motel when King was killed on April 4, 1968. "On Friday, April the 5th, his body was at Lewis's Funeral Home. Something said to me, 'Get up and go down to Lewis's Funeral Home,"  said Wine. "I went in and over him I said, 'Dr. King, I'm gonna make them pay.' That's when I made my commitment. That was fifty years ago, and I've not turned around since."
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Activist Sweet Willie Wine looks through papers near his framed "Memphis Invaders" (a black power group) jacket. After spending time in prison as a young man, the assassination of Martin Luther King inspired Wine to dedicate his life to the Civil Rights movement. He was three blocks away from the Lorraine Motel when King was killed on April 4, 1968. "On Friday, April the 5th, his body was at Lewis's Funeral Home. Something said to me, 'Get up and go down to Lewis's Funeral Home," said Wine. "I went in and over him I said, 'Dr. King, I'm gonna make them pay.' That's when I made my commitment. That was fifty years ago, and I've not turned around since."

Words are seen on the facade of Archie Hurt's house who regards Martin Luther King Jr. as a prophet, has been painting parts of Biblical scripture interspersed with his thoughts on religion, politics and current events on the front of his house for ten years and twenty years before that when it was his brother's house.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

Words are seen on the facade of Archie Hurt's house who regards Martin Luther King Jr. as a prophet, has been painting parts of Biblical scripture interspersed with his thoughts on religion, politics and current events on the front of his house for ten years and twenty years before that when it was his brother's house.

The base of a statue to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, stands in a park. In December 2017 activists forced a removal of the statue from his gravesite.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

The base of a statue to Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan, stands in a park. In December 2017 activists forced a removal of the statue from his gravesite.

A marker on a street corner in the Soulsville neighbourhood marks the spot of the People's Grocery lynching of African-American proprietors Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart in 1892, which spurred Ida B. Wells in her crusade against lynching.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A marker on a street corner in the Soulsville neighbourhood marks the spot of the People's Grocery lynching of African-American proprietors Thomas Moss, Calvin McDowell and Will Stewart in 1892, which spurred Ida B. Wells in her crusade against lynching.

A cotton-themed mural decorates a building in downtown Memphis.
. Memphis, UNITED STATES. Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

A cotton-themed mural decorates a building in downtown Memphis.