Broadfoot, Kagawa, Kassimali, Paderang, Salinas, Tilev

Gardner Rogers

Rhetoric 105, Section S1

15 April 2004

Dr. Martin Luther King’s Funeral and Assassination

Word spread like wildfire when the news of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination hit the public.  As the leading civil rights activist in the 1960s, Martin Luther King Jr. preached words of peace and understanding among races.  A well known name throughout the North and South, King gained extreme popularity within the African American community.  When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated a wave of sorrow spread across the nation.  With rage, sadness, and hopelessness in the public eye, clearly the assassination hurt more than just one man, it hurt a nation.      

A single shot killed 39-year-old Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.  At the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, a sniper from about “50-100 yards away,” shot and struck Dr. King’s neck, while instantaneously killing him (“Martin Luther King Slain” 139).  From the crime scene, F.B.I. investigators traced a “white Mustang automobile,” and an “‘unusually large’ amount of physical evidence” (Waldron 1).  With fingerprints, the actual rifle, and eyewitnesses as definite pieces of evidence, F.B.I. agents concluded that a Caucasian man executed the assassination and that he would be very easily caught (Waldron 1).  Eyewitness testimony even stated that the “saw a white man [ran] from the house immediately after the shooting” (“Martin Luther King Slain” 140).  As a shocking and horrific event, the assassination of Dr. King proved to test the nation’s character.

Shortly after the news of Martin Luther King’s assassination spread, “sporadic violence erupted in Harlem and Brooklyn’s . . . section . . . in two predominantly Negro communities” (Johnson 1).  With a total of twelve men arrested and violence breaking out all around the section, “police reinforcements, including elements of the riot-trained Tactical Patrol Force, were rushed into both communities” (Johnson 1).  Screaming “Brothers, Unite!” in the crowd, many African Americans chaotically trashed the community to physically represent their sadness and anger regarding the assassination (Johnson 2).

Five days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a funeral in Atlanta, Georgia preceded (“Abernathy” 33).  Dr. King’s funeral spearheaded with the rites and services, and then continued with a march from “the streets of downtown Atlanta to the campus of Morehouse College” (“Abernathy” 33).  With “740 city policemen and 100 firemen [guarding] the route of the march, and several thousand National Guardsmen” the march, surprisingly, ended peacefully and safely (“Abernathy” 33).  As an influential leader lost, “plans to handle crowds of 50,000 or more people were being hurriedly pulled together” (Ripley, “50,000" 1).  The public funeral, at Morehouse College, hosted thousands of people from all over the nation.  Standing along side the King family, these thousands of people mourned with the family in remembrance. 

After the funeral, analysts talked frequently of the estimated number of people in attendance at the funeral.  The estimated range “varied from 20,000 to 60,000" people (Ripley, “50,000" 1).  With a 40,000 person gap, it is interesting to note the large estimate difference.  How is it possible to obtain such a huge discrepancy?  With definite differences in opinion, actual visual experience, and calculations, this 40,000 person difference proved to represent a huge interruption in the actual number of people present. 

As a result of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination and funeral, the nation also felt large effects of his death.  On the day of his funeral, “private businesses and state and city governments gave their employees partial or total holidays” (“Nation” 35).  In addition to sporting events being cancelled, certain public schools and the New York Stock Exchange all closed to commemorate Dr. King.  This was the first time that “[t]he New York Stock Exchange [closed] . . . in honor of a private citizen” (“Nation” 35).  All of the nation-wide closings and cancellations really signified a nation that lost an important American citizen.  Adding to this, a still present commemoration lies in Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which yearly lies on the third Monday in January.

In addition to the closings, the media played a large role in covering the assassination and funeral.  Acting quickly and efficiently, most people thought “under most difficult circumstances, the broadcasting media behaved responsibly and carefully and made a particular point of not stressing rumors that could not be immediately verified” (Gould, “TV” 95).  Furthermore, a difference between how predominantly white and “Negro” stations covered the event brings about interest for the time period.  For the predominantly white broadcasting stations, “the responsive stations reflected a judgement that wholesale pre-emption of regular programming was not required” (Gould, “Methods” 79).  On the contrary, the predominantly African American broadcasting stations “cancelled all advertising for the day and devoted their full programming to the consequences of Dr. King’s death” (Gould, “Methods” 79).  Simply put, the difference in coverage between the white and black broadcasting stations, were a symbolic representation of the society as a whole.   However, when looking higher than the black and white broadcasting stations, one sees that every major television channel fully covered the story: CBS, NBC, and ABC (“Networks” 34).   Observing this, it is interesting to note how the racially different broadcasting stations covered the event.

As one of the most influential leaders of the 20^th century, Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination hit the nation with a blunt blow.  Smothered in irony, Dr. King’s journey towards a peaceful society was abruptly halted by one bullet.  With thousands of people at his funeral, the nation obviously knew all the great obstacles Martin Luther King Jr. had overcome.  The thousands of people at his funeral respected his work and his words, by avoiding violence throughout the day.  Martin Luther King Jr.’s death affected the nation, not only the day of his funeral but for lifetimes afterward.

Obtaining documents and articles for the paper was fairly easy.  The New York Historical Index was very useful to our topic.  It was the main resource we used to obtain documents.  This was because it is a nationally recognized paper that documents events that occur around the nation.  It also keeps an excellent archive that would allow us to research our topic in more detail.  We found a wealth of information within the archive.  The New York Times not only wrote articles about King’s assassination and funeral, it also covered the reaction of local cities and the nation as a whole.  It also discussed the media’s involvement with the event and made observations about it.  We were very happy that such information is available on a topic that affected the hearts of many.  We were only expecting a report on the facts of the assassination and funeral, but what we found was an analysis and an in depth coverage of every aspect of the event.

One thing that we might have complained about is that there wasn’t an article that directly stated the facts of the event in detail.  We wanted to obtain something that would clearly state the who, what, where, when, and how of the events and for that we went to the Facts on File books.  It was there that we found a very factual report of the events that happened during 1968, the year which King was assassinated and buried.  This really rounded off our report and gave us an overview of what happened.

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Works Cited

“Abernathy Leads Rites Tomorrow: To Conduct 2 Services for Dr. King in Atlanta.”  New York Times 8 Apr. 1968: 33.  ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.  Library Gateway, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  11 Apr. 2004 <http://www.proquest.com/>

Faber, Doris.  The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr..  New York: Watts, 1978.  

Gould, Jack.  “Methods of Covering King Slaying Vary Widely.”  New York Times 6 Apr. 1968: 79.  ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.  Library Gateway, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  11 Apr. 2004 <http://www.proquest.com/>

Gould, Jack.  “TV: Networks React Quickly to the King Murder.”  New York Times 5 Apr. 1968: 95.  ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.  Library Gateway, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  11 Apr. 2004 <http://www.proquest.com/>  

Johnson, Thomas A.. “12 Are Arrested Here: Sporadic Violence Erupts in Harlem.”  New York

Times 5 Apr. 1968: 1. ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.  Library Gateway, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  11 Apr. 2004 <http://www.proquest.com/>

Lukas, Anthony.  “Atlanta Is Peaceful During the Funeral.”  New York Times 10 Apr. 1968: 1-2.  ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.  Library Gateway, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois.  11 Apr. 2004 <http://www.proquest.com/>

“Martin Luther King Slain.”  Facts on File  139-142.    

Melanson, Philip H..  The Murkin Conspiracy: An Investigation Into the Assassination of Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr..  New York: Praeger, 1989.     

“Nation To Pause To Honor Dr. King: Schools, Banks, Stores, and Plants Closing Today.”  New York Times 9 Apr. 1968: 35.  ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times.