Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination and the anniversary of his death are being remembered Monday with a ceremony at the former Lorraine Motel in Memphis, which is now a national civil rights museum, as others recognized the date on social media.
King was at the motel standing on a balcony outside of Room 306 on April 4, 1968, when he was fatally shot. The museum will hold a ceremony Monday honoring King's life in the courtyard
facing the balcony, according to WREG.com.
The Commercial Appeal wrote that the museum ceremony is just a small part of events in Memphis honoring King. Talk show host Tavis Smiley will be the keynote speaker at the annual Gandhi-King Conference at the University of Memphis on Saturday. The newspaper said the conference will run Friday and Saturday at the university.
King, 39, was in Memphis to support a sanitation workers' strike and was on his way to dinner when he was struck in the
head by a bullet, wrote History.com. He was pronounced dead on arrival at a Memphis hospital.
James Earl Ray pleaded guilty in 1969 to killing King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in 1998.
Celebrities and others recognized King on Twitter with the hashtag #MLK and #MLKDay.
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