King's Final Speech: A Vision for Justice Before His Death
Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech at Mason Temple in Memphis on April 3, 1968, in support of striking sanitation workers. Heavy rain and tornado warnings had thinned the crowd, and King almost sent Ralph Abernathy to speak in his place. The speech's final passage has been endlessly analyzed for its apparent foreknowledge of death: "I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you." King had received dozens of death threats. The FBI had been surveilling and trying to discredit him for years. He was assassinated the following evening on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, struck by a single .30-06 rifle bullet fired from a rooming house across the street.
April 3, 1968
58 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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