I realize that this blog is about the American Revolution, but I thought this posting would be appropriate. In many ways, the story of Martin Luther King is a story of America's founding, since he did so much to help fulfill its true meaning. Forty years ago on this day, Martin Luther King was shot and killed outside of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 39 years old. King's assassination, which is deeply clouded in controversy, became a major turning point in the American Civil Right's movement. In 1964, King was instrumental in lobbying for the passage of the Civil Right's Act, but the act was still greatly unpopular across the American landscape. King's death marked a change in sentiment that propelled the Civil Right's Act to the forefront of American affairs. As King biographer Taylor Branch has appropriately stated, "Marin Luther King has done more to fulfill the legacy of America's founding than any other man...he's a modern equivalent of our Founding Fathers."
