50 years: On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on a motel balcony in Memphis.
In Washington DC: Marchers gathered for the ACT to End Racism Rally on the National Mall.
In Memphis: Tributes saluting King took place in the courtyard of the Lorraine Motel, now home to the National Civil Rights Museum.
In Atlanta: In the city of his birth, a bell at the King center rang for each year of King’s life.
Our live coverage has ended. Read below to see how the day unfolded.
Bells across the nation rang 39 times tonight about the time that Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down 50 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee.
Bells rang for each year the civil rights leader lived.
In Atlanta, King’s youngest child, Bernice King, rang a bell at his gravesite.
Members of his family also laid a wreath at the crypts of King and his widow, Coretta Scott King.
Sen. Bernie Sanders joined marchers today in Memphis, Tennessee, to pay tribute to Martin Luther King Jr.
“He was a nonviolent revolutionary,” the Vermont lawmaker told a crowd at a rally. “He was a man who wanted to transform our country morally, economically and racially.”
Sanders said Americans must follow King’s legacy to transform the country.
“We have common dreams. And today, we tell the President of the United States and anybody else, you are not going to divide us up,” she said.
Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, said today should be remembered as the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s demands for African-Americans families.
“If we want a living wage, Martin Luther King would say, ‘We must agitate. We must organize. We must legislate, but we must vote,’” he said, speaking to a crowd at the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Americans must vote to ensure King’s legacy lives on, said Morial, whose organization focuses on economic development in urban areas.
J. Lawrence Turner, a pastor at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, urged fellow faith leaders to “pick up the mantle” and take actions against injustice.
He also called on faith leaders to follow Martin Luther King’s teachings.
“I can hear Dr. King calling to us and saying to us that, ‘We cannot wait,’” Turner told a crowd gathered today at the the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
Crowds gathered today at the museum, where King was slain while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
The daylong tribute there – featuring speeches, videos, and singing and spoken-word performances – is largely being held in the courtyard of the motel, now home to the museum.
Yolanda Renee King, the eldest granddaughter of the Martin Luther King Jr., said Wednesday that the civil rights icon would recognize “we’re not where we’re supposed to be” were he alive today.
“I think that he would be impressed about all the work that we’re doing but we’re not where we’re supposed to be,” the 9-year-old told ABC’s “Good Morning America” on the 50th anniversary of MLK’s assassination.
Last month, Yolanda made a surprise appearance at the March for Our Lives in Washington, D.C., which demanded measures to address gun violence.
Watch her speech:
Civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, reflected today on the life of Martin Luther King Jr.
Lewis took to twitter to describe the day he found out that King was assassinated.
“50 years ago today, I learned the painful news that my friend, my mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis, TN,” he tweeted. “He was my brother, my leader–that day it felt like something died in all of us.”
Lewis’ skull was fractured in 1965 during an attempted voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to Montgomery, Alabama. He later joined King at the March on Washington.
As a college student in Memphis, Tennessee, Clara Ester was following the sanitation workers’ strike that had brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to town in April 1968. She was with some of his associates outside the Lorraine Motel, walking to a diner to have some catfish, when she heard the gunshot that ended his life.
Ester told CNN’s Erica Hill that every April 4 since then has been difficult to bear, in part because pictures from the assassination scene are re-circulated in the news media.
But it’s more difficult to deal with now, she said.
Watch more:
Bernice King, one of Martin Luther King Jr.’s children, said her father would be ready to help movements like #MeToo and the student-led March for Our Lives.
Here’s what she told CNN about how her father would view these modern movements:
She continued: “I’m sure that he would be making connections with these movements to make sure that they had what they needed in terms of understanding organizational strategy and planning so that they could bring about effective change.”
Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that America needs her father’s teachings and words today.
“His words were so poignant at the time, and they’re still very relevant now, and the legacy he’s left for us of nonviolent, social change and peace with justice is something that, you know, resonates,” she said.
Bernice King said she hopes people not only remember her father on this day, but that they also “act in his spirit to bring about the changes that are needed to create a more just, humane and peaceful world.”
Martin Luther King III said his dad would be “very excited” about nonviolence and student-led movements in the US.
In a second tweet, he posted side-by-side images of his father marching and #studentsforparkland chalked on a sidewalk.
In the weeks since the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, students from the school and across the country have rallied for gun reform. King’s 9-year-old daughter — Martin Luther King Jr.’s granddaughter — spoke at the student-organized March for Our lives last month.
Watch Yolanda Renee King’s speech:
Washington, DC
Tennessee
Georgia
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, speaking at a wreath laying ceremony at the National Mall, said Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy should serve as an inspiration for young people everywhere.
King was only 39 when he was killed, but he accomplished so much in his short years, she said.
She said while America has made progress since King’s assassination, “there is considerable work to do.”
Rev. Jesse Jackson and Ambassador Andrew Young are the sole surviving members of Dr. Martin Luther King’s entourage on the day he was killed.
The two returned to the site of King’s assassination — a balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis — for the first time together.
“It feels like it was yesterday,” Young told CNN.
Jackson said that King’s legacy continues to carry on. He’s traveled the world, and he’s constantly asked about King, he said.
“His spirit is alive,” Jackson said.
Watch more:
Crowds in Memphis have gathered near the site where Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated 50 years ago today. Many of them are carrying black and white signs that read, “I am a man.”
Here’s what they mean:
The signs resemble those carried through the city by striking sanitation workers in 1968.
King was in Memphis on April 4, 1968, in an effort to rally support for the sanitation workers’ strike, which started that February, over dangerous working conditions and the deaths of two men who were crushed to death in garbage compactors.
Memphis Mayor Henry Loeb had refused to meet with workers or recognize their union. They marched in downtown Memphis wearing and carrying what have become iconic sandwich boards and placards emblazoned with the words, “I Am a Man.”
Local politicians of the time say that the strike was all but broken until King came to Memphis to re-energize the sanitation workers.
President Trump tweeted a video marking the 50th anniversary of Marin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.
He continued: “I ask every citizen to join me in remembering this great American hero, and to carry on his legacy of justice, equality and freedom.”
Watch the video:
A blend of people — both locals and visitors from across the country — have gathered in Memphis today. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed at a motel in the city 50 years ago today.
The mood is also mixed, CNN’s Victor Blackwell reports.
Blackwell says there’s a sense of reverence in the crowd gathered around the motel because “this is a sacred place.”
But there’s also a sense of celebration.
“The son of Dr. King, Martin Luther King III, … said this is a day we should use to remember his life and celebrate his accomplishments,” Blackwell said.
Watch more:
Marchers are gathered in Washington DC right now for the ACT to End Racism Rally on the National Mall.
They got there this morning with a silent walk from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
The rally on the Mall will last into the late afternoon, featuring speakers, including religious leaders, artists, and activists.
Here’s a look at the silent walk this morning:
Two lawyers will be awarded the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize today. The award is being presented in Atlanta, where King was born.
The prize will go to Benjamin Ferencz, for his work prosecuting German Nazi leaders at Nuremburg, and Bryan Stevenson, for his work to make mandatory life-without-parole sentences for all children 17 or younger unconstitutional.
You can watch the ceremony here.
Learn more about Ferencz in the video below:
Former President Barack Obama joined civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis to reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. 50 years after his assassination.
In a six-and-a-half minute video, shot in black and white, Lewis and Obama spoke to a group of high school students. Lewis recalled learning that King had been shot while campaigning for Robert Kennedy in Indianapolis.
“The thing I regret more than anything else is I probably didn’t spend enough time with him and learning from him. I thought he would be around a long time,” he said.
During the conversation, a young man asked the leaders how being controversial could be both a benefit and a disadvantage.
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