On 4 April 1968, leading American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
King had travelled to the city to support striking sanitation workers, continuing his fight for racial and economic justice.
His death sparked nationwide riots and mourning, but also galvanised the civil rights movement and led to a renewed push for equality and anti-discrimination legislation in the United States.
