Imagine being one of the most well-known civil rights activists.
Being known by many and at the height of your career you are assassinated, and
no one knows who did it. This is what happened to Martin Luther King Jr. King
was a man who believed in love peace and wanted nothing but world peace. Even
though the case has been closed by the FBI and James Earl Ray is said to be the
killer, but King’s family does not believe it. The family believes that either
the FBI was in on the murder, or a man named Raul, or even the mafia (Little
1). Let’s explore all these different theories and whether they actually make
sense of King’s untimely demise.
Martin Luther
King Jr. was an incredibly influential man. At the age of twenty seven King
started to become involved making change (Martin Luther King Jr. 1). He saw
that there needed to change in the way black people were being treated in
America, and he took action (A new civil rights movement 1). He knew that he
wasn’t happy with the way things were for his people, and that nothing would
ever happen if no one ever stood up against it, so he did. He started off with
small rallies and marches and worked his way all the way to big speeches in
front of many people. His rallies and protests were usually led by him and
other well-known civil rights leaders, and they usually took place in cities
that were well known for their bigotry. One of King’s most known and biggest
speeches was his “I Have a Dream” speech, in front of almost 250,000 people at
the watch on March on Washington:
Dr. King’s
speech was not only the heart and emotional cornerstone of the March on
Washington, but also a testament to the transformative powers of one man and
the magic of his words. Fifty years later, it is a speech that can still move
people to tears. Fifty years later, its most famous lines are recited by schoolchildren
and sampled by musicians. Fifty years later, the four words “I have a dream”
have become shorthand for Dr. King’s commitment to freedom, social justice and
nonviolence, inspiring activists from Tiananmen Square to Soweto, Eastern
Europe to the West Bank. (Kakutani 1)
King's
influence on the country and world was a very big part of why he was is so
important. People believe him to be one of the most influential civil rights
leaders (Carson and Lewis 1). Many believe him to be the face of the whole
movement itself (Carson and Lewis 1). King was one of the only leaders who
could sit and talk to both black and white, or even once or twice get them in
the same room. This is also why he could make so much change is because he
respected people the way he wanted to be respected. King was also non- violent
and made sure to always use his words instead of fists or weapons (About Dr.
King 1). It was very easy for the white leaders to want to meet and talk with
him once they saw what his mission and what he was willing to do to get there.
His influence puts into perspective just how great he was at getting people
together and getting them to listen to point even when they didn’t want to.
That’s why he was seen as a threat to people who did not want African Americans
to have equal rights in America because he was a black man already breaking
barriers. He was a black man who was already getting people to listen and
respect him which wasn’t something that was normally done. One reason why
people believe that he was killed by the government is because they didn’t want
him to make too much change in America. And they were right to want to watch
him because he definitely influenced the way America is now.
Martin Luther
King was also a very intelligent man. At the small age of fifteen, King
graduated from high school, went on to get his BA in sociology at only
nineteen, and eventually received his PhD (Johnson 1). King was known for his
ability to write
incredibly
moving speeches and being able to read with them with wonderful effect. He was
so smart that he was able to even improvise on his speeches and come up with
really elaborate metaphors and analogies. Many don’t know, but a great part of
King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” was improvised (Kakutani 1). When a famous
singer, Mahalia Jackson screamed out to Dr. King to, “Tell’em about the Dream”,
King started to go on about a dream he had about the state of the nation. The
most important and memorable part of the speech had been improvised and wasn’t
even written on his original outline of the speech.
King was also
very good at weaving Bible verses in and out of his speeches. He was a
preacher, so it came easily too him, but he was good at making sure not to be too
preachy. He added just the right amount of Bible verses and stories to get his
point across; “Quotations from the Bible, along with its vivid imagery,
suffused his writings, and he used them to put the sufferings of
African-Americans in the context of Scripture — to give black audience members
encouragement and hope, and white ones a visceral sense of identification”,
says Kakutani about his intelligence in writing and gift to add Bible verses to
use imagery and metaphors to get his point across (Kakutani 1).
Lastly and
most significantly, King was determined. No matter what happened he always made
sure to do everything he could until he couldn’t do anything more. Even when
police and racist white people tried to stop his protests and marches, he would
keep going. When King was arrested and taken to jail, instead of moping and
being sad about the problem he was facing, he instead took the time to write
one of his most famous letters, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (Lohr 1). By
writing this letter he spread his determination by inspiring people to keep
protesting even though he was in jail and
couldn’t lead
them. His determination helped others want to do more for the cause because
they saw how much he was doing.
In 1969 James
Earl Ray, Martin Luther King’s assassinator, was convicted of murder. However,
over the years there have been many conspiracies made about his death. These
conspiracies are so real that even King’s family believes that Ray was not his
murderer. The two conspiracies are that either the government or a man names
Raoul killed king. Based on a self-conducted survey of 50 people, 35 people
believed more that the government killed King than a mystery man named Raoul.
The first
conspiracy is that Martin Luther King Jr.’s death was plotted by the
government. Some people believe this theory because of how corrupt was back in
that time. This was around the time that police officers were bringing dogs out
on black people and spraying them with water hoses. King was also making a lot
of change for black people in the nation and many didn’t like his revolutionary
ways. So, it wasn’t too farfetched for people to believe that it could have
been the government who killed him. Even his wife after, Coretta Scott King,
after his death believed that it wasn’t James Earl Ray, but the government who
had murdered her husband. She believed that as bad as the government treated
him when he was alive that it could have been them who killed him (Little 1).
After his
death there was also a case opened on the FBI for harassment of King such as
following and surveilling him. It was reported that the FBI had evidence of
King having an affair and sent it to him as leverage to get him to kill himself
(Little 1). Even with all this evidence however, the government decided that it
was not enough to say the FBI had plans to kill King. It is really hard to
believe that the FBI would kill King because the FBI is supposed to help
people. That is most likely another reason why it was hard for investigators to
make a case against them. That is also
probably another reason why this has only been seen as a conspiracy rather than
any type of truth. Although this is only a conspiracy it did not matter to
King’s family and they still do believe this theory.
The second
conspiracy theory is that Ray was hired by a man named Raoul. This information
was found at the end of Ray’s trial when he pled guilty, but soon after started
to speak of a man named Raoul (The United States Department of Justice 1). Ray
said that he was not at the place King was when he was shot and had no idea
about the assassination until after the fact (1). Until his death, Ray said
that it was Raoul who killed King and that he was framed (1). However, this
piece of evidence was added in at the last minute of Ray’s trial, so it was
hard to take this into consideration. Ray said that while he was in London that
a man named Raoul offered to pay his living expenses and bought him a Mustang
and the rifle that was used to kill King (The Killing of Dr. King, Part Two:
The Legend of Raoul1). Overtime though the FBI started to realize that Raoul
was still too hard to find. Many people were identified, by people that
defended James Earl Ray, as Raoul (The United States Department of Justice 1).
It was just too hard to track down this man after Ray had died and with him
already having pleaded guilty it just didn’t seem like it needed to be
investigated. However, this theory is still not overlooked because people still
don’t believe that Ray had enough motive to kill King, and that it just wasn’t
him.
Martin Luther
King Jr. Was an amazing man, but who sadly had many enemies. He was known by
many, but at the height of his career he was assassinated, and no one knows who
did it. King was a man who believed in love peace and wanted nothing but world
peace. Even though the case has been closed by the FBI and James Earl Ray is
said to be the killer, but King’s family does not believe it. The family
believes that either the FBI was in on the murder, or a man named
Raul, or even the mafia. However, the theory that the government killed him
made the most sense.
Works Cited
"About
Dr. King." The King Center, thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king/. Editors,
History.com.
Johnson,
David. "Timeline: Martin Luther King, Jr. - Part I." InfoPlease, 28
Feb. 2017,
www.infoplease.com/history/black-history/timeline-martin-luther-king-jr-part-i.
Kakutani,
Michicko. "The Lasting Power of Dr. King's Dream Speech." The New
York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia, 29 Aug. 2013,
www.nytimes.com/2013/08/28/us/the-lasting-power-of-dr-kings-dream-speech.html.
Lohr, Kathy.
"50 Years Later, King's Birmingham 'Letter' Still Resonates." KCUR,
16 Apr. 2013,
www.kcur.org/post/50-years-later-kings-birmingham-letter-still-resonates#stream/0.
"Martin Luther King, Jr." Encyclopedia Britannica,
www.britannica.com/biography/Martin-Luther-King-Jr. "Martin Luther King
Jr." HISTORY,
www.history.com/topics/black-history/martin-luther-king-jr-video. “Martin
Luther King Jr. [ushistory.org]." US History, www.ushistory.org/Us/54f.asp.
"The
Killing of Dr. King, Part Two: The Legend of Raoul — Historical
Blindness." Historical Blindness, 29 Jan. 2019,
www.historicalblindness.com/blogandpodcast//the-killing-of-dr-king-part-two-the-legend-of-raoul
"United
States Department Of Justice Investigation Of Recent Allegations Regarding The
Assassination Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." U.S. Department of Justice,
6 Aug. 2015,
www.justice.gov/crt/united-states-department-justice-investigation-recent-allegations-regarding-assassination-dr.
"Vi.
Raoul And His Alleged Participation In The Assassination." U.S. Department
of Justice, 6 Aug. 2015,
www.justice.gov/crt/vi-raoul-and-his-alleged-participation-assassination.
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