On April 4, 1968, on the fifty-third day of the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot and killed on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. James Earl Ray was arrested and convicted of the murder, but there is still considerable discussion about who was responsible for the assassination.

The murder of Dr. King led to rebellions in the streets of Memphis and in over 125 cities throughout the United States. Seven hundred fires were set in Washington, D.C., and twenty blocks on Chicago's West Side went up in flames. By the end of the week, 21,000 federal troops and 34,000 National Guardsmen had been called out in a hundred cities to stop the rebellions. Forty-six were left dead, more than 3,000 were injured, and over 25,000 were arrested. Property damage was estimated at almost $50 million. Dr. King's death also led to a decisive escalation of the militancy of the Black Liberation Movement. If nonviolent Rev. King could be killed, was nothing sacred?

Another march in honor of Dr. King and his family was held in Memphis on April 8. Dr. King's body was taken to Atlanta, where his funeral services, the largest funeral for a private citizen in U.S. history, were held.

The struggle of the Memphis sanitation workers continued. There were three main demands. One involved a wage increase and a second involved a dues check-off in which the city would deduct union dues from workers' checks. The third, and most important, involved a demand for city recognition of AFSCME, AFL-CIO, Local 1733 as the designated representative for certain employees within the Division of Public Works. But the demand for recognition was more fundamental than the union, as the bold statement of the many "I AM A MAN" signs in the strike made clear. It was a matter of basic dignity.

On Tuesday, April 16, sixty-five days after the strike began and twelve days after Dr. King's death, the workers returned to work having won all of their demands-union recognition, the pay increase, and the dues check-off. They felt that they had also won recognition of their manhood.

The SCLC held its annual convention in Memphis in July 1968 with Dr. King's closest associate and friend, Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy, presiding.

The untimely death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had a significant impact on the nation and on the freedom struggle of Black people. A generation of college students were radicalized in its wake and sought to change the policies and practices of institutional racism through social protest and disruption of universities. These actions, along with the general national concern about racism, contributed to a dramatic result: between 1960 and 1970, the number of Black students enrolled in colleges increased from 99,000 to 417,000; it increased to 666,000 in 1975. Black Studies programs and courses were also institutionalized on many campuses.

In 1983, the U.S. Congress and the President passed and signed legislation that recognized the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by establishing January 15, his birthday, as a federal holiday. Beginning in 1986, it is the first such honor ever accorded to an African American citizen.

Ronald W. Bailey
Northeastern University

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