Summary: Roads to Memphis, PBS, the American Experience….watch video
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/memphis/player/
On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray, a career criminal with a history of small-scale robberies and scattered stints in jail, grew up in a poor section of Illinois. Ray dropped out of school at the age of 15 and served only two years in the army before he was dismissed for "ineptness and lack of adaptability". While in the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1966, Ray followed Martin Luther King's growing popularity and power, nursing his own hatred of the civil rights leader and his gnawing desire to escape from prison. In April 1967 Ray smuggled himself out of the penitentiary by hiding in a bakery cart.
Hoping his escape would inspire a widely publicized manhunt, Ray was disappointed in the police's lackluster response, and he began searching even more desperately for something to make him infamous. Ray's pursuit of fame took him all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico on various robberies, smugglings and scams. Ray zeroed in on his ultimate target, Dr. Martin Luther King.
Traveling to Birmingham, Alabama to stalk King, Ray bought a Remington rifle. On April 3rd, King spoke to the crowd in Memphis, Tennessee, giving one of the most powerful speeches of his life. In it, he addressed the growing threats against his life, proclaiming "It doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind."
The following, April 4th, as King and his aides prepared to go to dinner, Ray shot and killed the civil rights leader from a boarding house adjacent to King's motel, Lorraine Motel. The assassination shocked the country, setting off deadly riots and triggering the largest, costliest and most ambitious manhunt thus far in American history. It was not until two weeks later, when detectives linked the prints on the rifle to James Earl Ray, that they knew whom to look for.
.
Ray pled guilty to killing King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in 1998, 30 years after the murder.
1. What events in Ray’s childhood influenced his adult life? What contributed to his criminal life? His hatred for Martin Luther King? What happened in prison that started his obsession with killing Martin Luther King?
2. Where did Ray get his information about King? Radio? TV?
3. What was Martin Luther King doing at this time?
4. What different cities did Ray travel to? Why? What happened in Los Angeles?
5. Why did Ray decide to go to Atlanta? Memphis?
6. How was Ray able to assassinate MLK?
No comments:
Post a Comment