Special Features
- Further Reading: Related Books and Websites
- Preview: Roads to Memphis Preview
- Timeline: The 1968 Hunt for Martin Luther King's Killer
- Bonus Video: Interview with Hampton Sides
- Photo Gallery: The Manhunt for James Earl Ray
On April 4, 1968, escaped convict James Earl Ray shot and killed Dr. Martin Luther King. This is the fateful narrative of the killer and his prey, set against the seething, turbulent forces in American society at that time.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
Did you ever see Dr. King speak? Do you remember learning of his assassination? What impact have his life and teachings had on you?
Series Blog
Sides: Motivations of a Political Assassin
Author Hampton Sides, a frequent AMERICAN EXPERIENCE consultant and author of Hellhound on his Trail, on which our 2010 film Roads to Memphis was based, draws a parallel between the Arizona shooter Jared Loughner and the infamous MLK assassin James Earl Ray in a recent Newsweek article. "Though he spent his criminal career striving for anonymity, he desperately wanted the world to know he existed," wrote Sides. "Like a certain deranged young man in Tucson last week, Ray imagined the best way to leave his mark was the gun down someone young, eloquent, and charismatic."
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE has an exclusive interview with Hampton Sides talking about his memories of the MLK assassination and the character of James Earl Ray and his motivations for killing Dr. King.
Roberto Clemente
Clemente was an exceptional baseball player whose career sheds light on larger issues of immigration, civil rights and cultural change.
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The Murder of Emmett Till
The acquittal of the murderers of Chicago teen Emmett Till mobilized the civil rights movement.
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One Woman, One Vote
The women's suffrage movement won the right to vote when the 19th Amendment passed in 1920.
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Zoot Suit Riots
In August 1942 the murder of a young Mexican American man ignited a firestorm in Los Angeles, ultimately sparking brutal race riots.
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George Wallace: Settin' the Woods on Fire
The Alabama governor and presidential candidate promised segregation forever.
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The Abolitionists
How five abolitionist allies turned a despised fringe movement against chattel slavery into a force that literally changed the nation.
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Freedom on My Mind
The Freedom Summer of 1964 saw whites and blacks coming together in a nonviolent army to bring national attention to the struggle for racial equality.
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Scottsboro: An American Tragedy
The trial of nine falsely accused African American teens in Alabama would draw North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War.
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