“On the evening of April 4, Dr. King stepped onto the balcony outside his room at approximately 6:01 p.m.”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The motel was located on Mulberry Street and was a Black owned business that provided lodging for Black travelers during segregation, when many hotels in the South were racially segregated. The Lorraine Motel was well known among Black musicians, athletes, and civil rights leaders.

Dr. King was staying in Room 306 while visiting Memphis to support the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike. The strike began in February 1968 after two workers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were killed by a malfunctioning garbage truck. The workers were protesting unsafe working conditions, low wages, and the city’s refusal to recognize their union. Dr. King viewed the strike as part of a broader struggle for economic justice and labor rights.

On the evening of April 4, Dr. King stepped onto the balcony outside his room at approximately 6:01 p.m. He was shot by James Earl Ray from a boarding house across the street. Dr. King was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. He was 39 years old.

James Earl Ray was arrested in London two months later and pleaded guilty in 1969. He later recanted his confession, but no court overturned his conviction. The assassination led to widespread riots in more than 100 U.S. cities and prompted renewed federal attention to civil rights legislation.

In 1991, the Lorraine Motel was converted into the National Civil Rights Museum. The museum preserves Room 306 and the surrounding area and documents the history of the civil rights movement from slavery through the late twentieth century. The site is designated as a place of historical significance and is used for education and public history.

Address: 450 Mulberry Street, Memphis, TN