Martin L King’s murder: Answer still lies waiting!

Ritam Banati
A poem commemorating him goes:
“He once said that he had a dream and that one day it will come true. But it will only be a dream until there is change in me and you.”Martin Luther King has been called as the pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. He was a highly effectual leader due to whose efforts the Supreme Court ordered the desegregation of buses ending the year-long bus boycott, which was instigated by a Black woman Rosa Park’s action. Rosa had refused to vacate her Whites-only seat in the bus. There was a clear segregation of seats at the time in the buses in America.

This landmark court decision was the brightest feather in his cap. King braved many storms and did not let any obstacle in his path become a stumbling block. He braved many death threats including when his house was bombed.
Through the sheer force of his words and his mass appeal, King succeeded in creating a demand in society for racial justice.
One of his speeches earned him world-wide acclaim. It was “I have a dream” which was delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in the capital city on August 1963. A massive crowd of 250,000 people had gathered to hear it. Some of his famous lines are:
“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force……I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”That the strength of his words created a huge dent is clear from the vehement criticism that King attracted. The speech was a part of the March on Washington following which the FBI called him as the "most dangerous and effective Negro leader in the country." Besides, just a year after the famous March on Washington, King became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35. But prize or no prize, King continued just as arduously. A year later in 1965, he led a campaign to register Blacks to vote. The same year the US Congress passed the Voting Rights Act outlawing the discriminatory practices that had barred Blacks from voting in the south.
He was ever ready to fight for justice. On April, 1968, King was in Memphis, Tennessee to support the striking garbage workers striving for a wage hike and improved work conditions. This cost him his life. It was on April 4 of the same year that King got martyred by a bullet that hit him while he was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
That he must have got an intuition about his approaching end is indicated in the manner in which King concluded his speech in the church just a day before he died, "I`m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."His assassination created a furore and led to the arrest of James Earl Ray in 1969. Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He held some other man called Raoul to be the actual culprit and campaigned for a retrial after retracting his initial confession. Interestingly, the retrial demand was backed by King’s family.
On the instructions of Dexter King, the son of the Black leader, Ray’s lawyer William Pepper filed a civil suit against a bar owner called Jowers. Dexter believed that there was a conspiracy angle to his father’s murder but ruled out Ray’s involvement. Jowers bar was opposite the motel from where the shot was fired. Jowers had earlier claimed that a man had rushed to his bar and told him to hide a rifle on the fateful day.
Apart from this there are numerous other conspiracy theories but they have all been refuted.
In the year 2000 a US investigation, on the absence of hard evidence dismissed the conspiracy theory. However, on minute analysis it can be concluded that a well-knit plot cannot be completely ruled out. King’s own family believed that there was indeed a planned scheme but that Ray was not the real culprit. The questions that strike one`s mind and contest claims that the case has been solved are:
It seems less likely that Ray, a runaway convict who was fleeing one place and seeking refuge in the other: LA-California-New Orleans-Louisiana-Birmingham-Alabama-Atlanta-Georgia and then Memphis could risk committing such a heinous crime himself.
The Whites were disenchanted with the striking sanitation workers and there was also a division within the Black community which comprised a violent group of Blacks. King believed in the might of non-violence.
King came to Memphis and provided the push to the workers before he returned to Atlanta. But on the fateful day he was in Memphis to lead a workers` march when he was shot while standing in the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. The timing of the killer was perfect. It seemed that the assassin was waiting for King to come to the balcony of the motel.
The FBI had branded the leader as a Communist without any solid proof to substantiate their claims. This was after his March on Washington and the “I have a dream” speech. The FBI was investigating the murder. So…..
The murder may still be shrouded in mystery even after the case has been closed. Yet King’s death did lend further vigour to his dream when the Memphis garbage workers got what they wanted. The proud son of the civil rights leader, Martin Luther King III while lauding his father called him “more than a dreamer”. The son said in all truth about his father, “He didn`t just talk the talk, he walked the walk”.