assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. — Bunk History

Aftermath of a riot in Washington, D.C., following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s funeral in 1968. Photography by Warren K. Leffler, via the Library of Congress.

After the Murder

Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination was the fateful moment that the wave of hope finally broke for Black America.

by Donovan X. Ramsey via Guernica on July 6, 2023

Scene of Martin Luther King assassination, with people around King pointing to where the gunfire came from.

The Day Martin Luther King Jr. Died

In the first episode of ‘Voices of the Movement,’ King's associates recount their memories of April 4, 1968.

by Jonathan Capehart via Washington Post on April 4, 2019

One Night on the Mountaintop

Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis 50 years ago to help 1,300 black sanitation workers on strike. Ozell Ueal was one of them.

by Tonyaa Weathersbee via The Bitter Southerner on April 3, 2018

The mugshot of James Earl Ray next to a picture of Martin Luther King Jr.

Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.? His Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Framed.

Coretta Scott King described “a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband.” The King children remain certain of that, too.

by Tom Jackman via Retropolis on March 30, 2018

The Whitewashing of King's Assassination

The death of Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t a galvanizing event, but the premature end of a movement that had only just begun.

by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on March 1, 2018

Ticket for Martin Luther King Jr.'s funeral service at Morehouse College, April 9, 1968.

The Shot That Echoes Still

James Baldwin's dispatch from MLK's funeral foreshadowed an America we may never escape.

by James Baldwin, Michael Eric Dyson via Esquire on April 4, 1972

Protestors confronting Army military police.

When the Military Comes to American Soil

Domestic deployments have generally been quite restrained. Can they still be?

by Joshua Braver via The Atlantic on June 17, 2025

Book cover of "Living the Dream" by Daniel T. Fleming.

Fighting to Desegregate the American Calendar

As a versatile but complex hero, King led a life open to interpretation by politicians and activists of all types who fiercely debated his legacy.

by Daniel T. Fleming, Brock Schnoke via UNC Press Blog on January 15, 2024

Martin Luther King Jr. with other activists and children.

Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Perilous Power of Respectability

We revere the man and revile the strategy, but King knew what he was doing.

by Kelefa Sanneh via The New Yorker on May 8, 2023

Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King.

The Night James Brown Saved Boston

The city might have gone up in flames after MLK's assassination, if not for the quick actions of a DJ, a city councilor, and The Hardest Working Man In Show Business.

by Dart Adams via Medium on April 5, 2023

A soldier standing guard on the corner of 7th & N Street NW in Washington D.C. with the ruins of buildings that were destroyed during the riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

After April 4: The 1968 Rebellions and the Unfinished Work of Civil Rights in DC

When the smoke cleared in D.C. following the 1968 riots after the assasination of MLK, the city's black communities organized to rebuild a more equitable city.

by Kyla Sommers via HNN on April 2, 2023

Civil rights leader Wyatt Tee Walker addresses a crowd at St. Phillips AME Church in Atlanta.

How Civil Rights Leader Wyatt Tee Walker Revived Hope After MLK's Death

In a sermon two weeks after MLK's funeral, Walker urged young seminarians to be hopeful and take action for making change happen. His sermon has valuable lessons today.

by Corey D. B. Walker via The Conversation on February 25, 2020

The Assassin Next Door

My family’s immigrant journey and James Earl Ray’s path to targeting MLK, Jr., intersected at a corner of East Hollywood.

by Hector Tobar via The New Yorker on July 22, 2019

The Civil Rights Activist So Close to Martin Luther King Jr. She Was Thought of as His ‘Other Wife'

According to the recent discoveries, civil rights activist, Dorothy Cotton, and King had a close romantic relationship.

by Jason Miller via The Conversation on June 24, 2019

1968: Soul Music and the Year of Black Power

The summer's hit songs offered a glimpse into the changing views of Black America.

by Mark Anthony Neal via Black Perspectives on December 31, 2018

MLK: What We Lost

50 years after King's death, his image has been transformed and stripped of its radicalism.

by Annette Gordon-Reed via New York Review of Books on October 18, 2018

The Last Words of Robert F. Kennedy

Until his last breath, RFK insisted that Americans confront their country’s shortcomings—and live up to its potential.

by Conor Friedersdorf via The Atlantic on June 5, 2018

Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Roy Wilkins, and Lyndon Johnson.

Misremembering 1968

Fifty years later, the legacies of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy still loom large.

by Robert Greene II via Arc: Religion, Politics, Et Cetera on April 24, 2018

Real Museums of Memphis

How the National Civil Rights Museum has obscured the ongoing dispossession of African-Americans taking place in its shadow.

by Zandria Felice Robinson via Scalawag on April 12, 2018

King's Death Gave Birth to Hip-Hop

The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. led directly to hip-hop, an era that is often contrasted with his legacy.

by Vann R. Newkirk II via The Atlantic on April 8, 2018

Martin Luther King: How a Rebel Leader Was Lost to History

Fifty years after his death, King is a national treasure in the US. But what happened to his revolutionary legacy?

by Gary Younge via The Guardian on April 4, 2018

A Black man speaks as other protesters stand around him.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Milwaukee: 200 Nights and a Tragedy

King's visits to Milwaukee highlighted the extent to which the civil rights struggle was a national one.

by Mark Speltz via Black Perspectives on April 2, 2018

Baldwin’s Lonely Country

After MLK's assassination, James Baldwin attempted to reconcile the divide between the civil rights movement and Black Power.

by Ed Pavlic via Boston Review on March 29, 2018

Woman wearing a VR headset.

The Future of History Lessons is a VR Headset

A conversation with the creator of a virtual reality experience that takes you inside the protests leading up to MLK Jr.’s death.

by Derek Ham, Ann-Derrick Gaillot via The Outline on February 21, 2018

Martin Luther King Jr. speaking into news microphones.

Martin Luther King Jr. Spent the Last Year of His Life Detested by the Liberal Establishment

King was roundly denounced for his stances against the Vietnam War and injustices north of the Mason-Dixon line.

by Zaid Jilani via The Intercept on January 15, 2018

Lessons from the Election of 1968

Protests, populism, and progressivism all clashed in a battle royal. But what really drives election results?

by Louis Menand via The New Yorker on January 8, 2018

The Strike That Brought MLK to Memphis

In his final days, King stood by striking sanitation workers. We returned to the city to see what has changed—and what hasn’t.

by Ted Conover via Smithsonian on January 1, 2018

Document stamped "classified."

Trump Breaks Washington’s Secrecy Addiction

The president is right to release the Kennedy files.

by James W. Carden via The American Conservative on February 14, 2025

Crowded and brightly-lit Beale Street in Memphis.

Memphis: The Roots of Rock in the Land of the Mississippians

Rising on the lands of an ancient agricultural system, Memphis has a long history of negotiating social conflict and change while singing the blues.

by Rob Crossan via JSTOR Daily on October 18, 2024

Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

Hate Burst Out: Chicago, 1968

It is hard not to figure the 1968 election as inaugurating the cultural and political polarisation of the American electorate so evident today.

by Kim Phillips-Fein via London Review of Books on August 7, 2024

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