what happened to martin luther king

Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent civil rights leader, was assassinated on April 4, 1968. He was fatally shot by a single bullet while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The assassin was James Earl Ray, who fired the shot from a bathroom window of a nearby rooming house. King was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m. at the age of 39. The assassination happened as King was in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers, and it sparked widespread outrage and civil unrest across the U.S. The official investigation concluded that James Earl Ray acted alone, although some believe there was a conspiracy involving the government and others.