Thursday, April 4 1968: What a Day

White Mustang Shuffle

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, at 4:45 p.m. I and three friends left Warrensburg, Missouri, on back roads headed for Kansas City and eventually Denver. We had planned to go skiing in Colorado and would stop in Denver to rent equipment. It was going to be an exciting, long weekend -- or so we thought. Little did we know what hell the weekend would be.

On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was busy, worried and stressed. He was sick and reportedly had not been sleeping well. There were strikes in Memphis that had not gone well. The planned non-violent demonstration had ended up in a riot after black activists and angry security forces broke through the ranks of his non-violent marchers. He had a critical sermon to finish as his focus shifted from civil rights to rhetoric against the Vietnam War and civil injustice. The title of the sermon was to be "Why America May Go to Hell."

About 5 p.m., Rev. King decided he was hungry and he cleaned up in preparation to go out for dinner with local preacher Samuel Kyles. Rev. Kings' room was number 306 at the Loraine Hotel because it was the only motel in Memphis that would accept blacks. About 5:30 p.m., Rev. Kyles came to the room and a few moments later, as they stepped on to the balcony, a shell from a 30:06 rifle slammed him backward into the wall. He had been hit in the jaw and the spinal cord. It was said he fell with his arms outstretched as if he had been crucified. Immediately after the killing, a white man had been seen fleeing in a white Mustang. In his room, a rifle was found along with other incriminating items. The Mustang was found later in Atlanta, but before it was located, the Memphis police had put out all-point bulletins in many states.