Civil rights leader shot in Memphis

Memphis, Tenn. (AP)—Nobel Laureate Martin Luther King Jr., father of nonviolence in the American civil rights movement, was killed by an assassin’s bullet Thursday night.

King, 39, was hit in the neck by a bullet as he stood on the balcony of a motel here. He died less than an hour later in St. Joseph’s Hospital.

Gov. Buford Ellington immediately ordered 4,000 National Guard troops back into the city. A curfew, which was clamped on Memphis after a King-led march turned into a riot a week ago, was reimposed.

Police said incidents of violence, including several firebombings, were reported following King’s death.

The 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner was standing on the balcony of his motel here, where he had come to lead protests on behalf of the city’s 1,300 striking garbage workers, most of them Negroes, when he was shot.

Two unidentified men who were arrested were released several hours later.

As word of King’s death spread through the stunned city, Negroes in scattered areas also looted stores, stoned police and firetrucks and tossed several firebombs. Two policemen were injured, mainly by flying glass when a shotgun blast broke their windshield.

Four hours after King died, the city was quieting some, but police still reported sporadic outbreaks.

Police also said they found a 30.05 rifle on Main Street about one block from the motel, but it was not confirmed whether this was the weapon that killed King.

An aide who was standing nearby said the shot hit King in the neck and lower right part of his face.

“Martin Luther King is dead,” said Assistant Police Chief Henry Lux, the first word of the death.

Assistant Hospital Administrator Paul Hess confirmed later that King died at 7 p.m. of a bullet wound in the neck.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson said he and others in the King party were getting ready to go to dinner when the shooting occurred.

“King was on the second-floor balcony of the motel,” Jackson said. “He had just bent over. If he had been standing up, he wouldn’t have been hit in the face.”

King had just told Ben Branch: “My man, be sure to sing ‘Blessed Lord’ tonight, and sing it well.”

A shot then rang out, Jackson said.

Jackson said the only sound King uttered after that was, “Oh!”

“It knocked him down. When I turned around I saw police coming from everywhere,” Jackson said. “They said, ‘where did it come from,’ and I said ‘behind you.’ The police were coming from where the shot came.”

Branch, another member of the King party, said “The bullet exploded in his face. It knocked him off his feet.” Solomon Jones, King’s chauffeur, said he saw a “man in white clothes” running from the scene. Violence erupted again shortly after King was shot. Police reported snipers firing on police and National Guard units, and several persons were reported hit by the shots. Several firebombings and other acts of vandalism also were reported. Police director Frank Holloman ordered a curfew back into effect “until further notice” as youths ran rampant, many of them with fire bombs in their hands.

National Guard units, which had been deactivated only Wednesday after five days on duty here, were called back to active duty and rushed to Memphis.

A bomb threat was telephoned to Methodist Hospital, and police were rushed to the scene.

Armed guards were immediately posted at St. Joseph’s Hospital, where King died.

Holloman said early investigations indicated the assassin was a white male, who was “50 to 100 yards away in a flophouse.” He said police had no definite leads but that two persons were in custody.