The world remembers Martin Luther King today, as the civil rights activists was assassinated on this day five decades ago.
King became instrumental in changing the social landscape of 1950-60s America, where racial segregation was the norm. His role in the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955 turned King into a nationally recognised figure.
King campaigned hard for the desegration that was so deeply rooted in America’s society. He succeeded, for the most part, but such fight would eventually cost him his life.
King was shot on April 4, 1968, as he stood on the balcony of Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The shooter, a petty criminal named James Earl Ray, fired a single shot with a rifle Remington rifle he had recently purchased under a false identity. The bullet entered King’s head. He died in hospital later that day.
Ray fled the scene and remained on the run for two months before being finally apprehended at London Heathrow Airport. He died in prison, after spending 29 years in jail.
King’s legacy is one of social revolution, achieved by the strength and faith of his own beliefs.