A Progressive History of American Democracy Since 1945 by Chris J. Magoc

Author:Chris J. Magoc [Magoc, Chris J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781000513738
Google: nbFQEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-12-29T02:49:50+00:00

Then came the haunting crescendo:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life—longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now … I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!20

The assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. the next evening as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel was followed by weeks of rioting in more than 100 cities. Sixteen thousand people were arrested, several thousand injured, the ruins of whole city blocks smoldered, and 43 black citizens lay dead. Another lone gunman, James Earl Ray, was found guilty of King’s murder. Questions were raised immediately about the possible complicity of the FBI, and in 1976 the House Select Committee on Assassinations found evidence pointing to possible co-conspirators. In a 1999 civil lawsuit brought by King’s family against a Memphis café owner named Lloyd Jowers, using the “preponderance of evidence” standard of a civil trial, a jury concluded that members of the Memphis Police Department, the FBI, and the U.S. 111th Military Intelligence Group had conspired to murder Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.21 Although the Justice Department in 2000 reasserted that Ray acted alone, for many black Americans, the Jowers trial confirmed their first instincts: white America pulled the trigger.

Following her husband’s funeral, on April 8, Coretta Scott King led a peaceful march through Memphis and the sanitation workers won union recognition from the city. The Poor People’s Campaign drew 3,000 souls to the nation’s capital for a six-week encampment demanding an anti-poverty program. But in a fearful climate of white backlash, neither Congress nor a besieged Johnson administration heard their pleas.

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