Anniversary of MLK assassination

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Photos: Anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated April 4, 1968

Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis is illuminated by a stream of afternoon light around 5:40 p.m. on March 23, 2008. The photo was taken at this time in the afternoon at that very spot Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by an assassin's bullet more than 40 years ago.

Striking Memphis sanitation workers, gathering for a new march Friday afternoon, March 29, 1968 clean the sidewalks and gutters near their meeting hall using placards printed for Thursday's march as scoops for debris in Memphis, Tenn.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is seen here with Rev. Jesse Jackson, left, just prior to his final public appearance to address striking Memphis sanitation workers on April 4, 1968. King was assassinated later that day outside his motel room.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. makes his last public appearance at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968. The following day King was assassinated on his motel balcony.

Martin Luther King Jr., second from right, stands on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated there. From left are, Hosea Williams, Jesse Jackson, King, and Ralph Abernathy.

This 1968 file photo was taken minutes after an assassin's bullet struck Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. Photographed by Joseph Louw, Jesse Jackson and Andrew Young stand over King's body as they point out to police where they heard the shot.

Today is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The following newspaper pages ran in the days after his death. This page ran on April 5, 1968.

An unidentified woman weeps uncontrollably at Memphis funeral home early Friday morning, April 5, 1968 as hundreds of mourners filed past the body of Dr. Martin Luther King before it was to be sent to Atlanta. AP Wire Photo.

The balcony of the Lorraine Motel, Mulberry Street, Memphis, Tenn., April 6, 1968, with a memorial plaque and wreaths on Dr. King's balcony 2 days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, April 4, 1968.

A news reporter stands in the room rented by the assassin who shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis, Tenn., April 5, 1968. From an adjacent bathroom window, the assassin shot and killed the civil rights leader who was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4.

The casket bearing the body of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is taken up a loading ramp and placed aboard an airliner to his hometown Atlanta, Ga., on April 5, 1968, at the airport of Memphis, Tennessee. The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, King's closest associate and named to replace Dr. King as head of the SCLC, stands in the doorway of the plane.

Thousands of mourners file into Sisters Chapel at Spelman College in Atlanta to pay final respects to slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lying in state, April 8, 1968. Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday.

Crowds gather outside a funeral home as the casket holding the body of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is carried inside in Atlanta, Ga., April 5, 1968 The man standing at center, near rear door of hearse, is Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen; next to the mayor is Moneta Sleet Jr. When Mrs. Coretta Scott King learned that the pool of photographers covering the funeral did not include a black photographer, she sent word that if Mr. Sleet were not allowed in the church, there would be no photographers.

Masses of people crowd the street in front of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, April 9, 1968, partially hiding the hearse parked in front of the door. The hearse will take the body of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from the church to Morehouse College for additional funeral services.

Civl rights leader Bayard Rustin points while talking with William Lucy, left, a representative of municipal employees, as they organize a march in Memphis, Tenn., April 8, 1968, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis last Thursday. Others, left to right: Jerry Wurf, glasses, international president of the Municipal Workers Union; T.O. Jones; May Reuther, wife of UAW union president Walter Reuther; Reuther. Others are unidentified. (AP Photo

Six men hang a sign in honor of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at an expressway bridge near King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference headquarters in Atlanta, April 8, 1968. Funeral services for King will be conducted Tuesday.

An unidentified man lifts Bernice King, 5, over her father's casket in Atlanta, April 7, 1968. Her father, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was slain by sniper fire in Memphis, Tenn., April 4. Bernice's brothers, Martin III and Dexter, and her mother, Coretta Scott King, center, wearing hat, also view the body.

Atlanta, Ga: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. funeral passes in front of Atlanta city hall near the Georgia state capitol building April 6, 1968.

Activity on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange is halted at 11 o'clock in a minute of tribute to assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., April 5, 1968. Both the New York and American exchanges stopped trading for a moment of silence.

Magnolia leaves frame some of the thousands of mourners who lined up to view the body of slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Atlanta, April 7, 1968.

Coretta Scott King is shown during funeral services for her late husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Ga., April 9, 1968.

In this 1968 Atlanta Journal-Constitution photo by Noel Davis, Coretta Scott King sits with tears in her eyes at the funeral of her slain husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. To her left sits Harry Belafonte. Images such as this illustrate how news photography has captured the most dramatic and moving moments in history and changed the way people view the world and current events. This photo, along with more than 100 others, was part of an exhibition of photographic moments in Atlanta history.

Coretta Scott King, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and her children, lower left, lead a march in Memphis, Tenn., in Dr. King's honor, April 8, 1968. King, who had been in Memphis to lead this march in sympathy of striking sanitation workers, was assassinated last Thursday. They are shown marching down Main Street in Memphis. (AP Photo)

Civil rights marchers stream across the Alabama River in this March 21, 1965, file photo on the first of a five-day, 50-mile march to the state capitol at Montgomery. Dr. Martin Luther King holds hands with his wife, Coretta Scott King, right foreground, during the march. Saturday, April 4, 1998, marks the 30th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination.

Capitol Homes, the Atlanta housing project where James Earl Ray's car was found six days after Martin Luther King's assassination. Ray admitted to driving from Memphis to Atlanta on the night of the shooting and ditching his 1966 white Mustang at Capitol Homes. Residents later notified the police, but Ray had since left Atlanta on a bus and was in Canada by then.

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Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis is illuminated by a stream of afternoon light around 5:40 p.m. on March 23, 2008. The photo was taken at this time in the afternoon at that very spot Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by an assassin's bullet more than 40 years ago.

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