“I’m delighted to see each of you here tonight in spite of a storm warning. You reveal that you are determined to go on anyhow. Something is happening in Memphis, something is happening in our world.”

—Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” April 3, 1968. 

On March 28, 1968, a protest march is set into motion, organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in support of striking Memphis sanitation workers. The march follows the death of two black sanitation workers and is a cry for recognition of the workers’ rights. Fifteen minutes after the start of the march, protesters in the back of the line begin looting storefronts, inciting a riot. Dr. King is whisked away to safety and returns to Atlanta. In the chaos of the aborted march, police shoot a sixteen-year-old boy named Larry Payne as he emerges from a basement in a housing development. No legal action is taken after Payne’s unjustifiable murder. Dr. King becomes so depressed as a result of the developments in Memphis that he considers calling off a march on Washington that he and the SCLC are planning.

Dr. King considers not returning to Memphis, yet ultimately decides that economic equality and justice for the sanitation workers is too important. He and the SCLC decide to schedule another march for April 5, 1968. Dr. King returns to Memphis on April 3.  Throughout this trip to Memphis, Dr. King is under constant surveillance by two African-American plainclothes officers from the Memphis Police Department.

Dr. King’s schedule on April 3rd, 1968:

10:33am: Dr. King arrives at the Memphis airport. Arrival delayed by one hour due to a bomb threat and a search of the plane. Dr. King holds a press conference at the airport.

11:20am: Dr. King arrives at the Lorraine Motel.

12:05pm: Dr. King leaves the motel for a meeting at the Centenary Methodist Church. He announces his plans to lead a mass march on April 8.

1pm: U.S. District Court Judge Bailey Brown issues temporary restraining order brought by the city of Memphis against Dr. King and his SCLC associates, which prohibits them from marching.

2:25pm: Dr. King returns to the Lorraine Motel and is served with the restraining order. He tells the press that “We are not going to be stopped by mace or injunctions.”

4pm: Dr. King and the SCLC staff meet with the Black Organizing Project, a Memphis-based “Black Power” group. Charles Cabbage (of the “Invaders,” a subset of the Black Organizing Project) requests money to institute a “Liberation School” and a “Black Co-op.” Dr. King agrees to use his influence to secure funds and Andrew Young agrees to help write up a plan. The Department of Justice believes these concessions were made to the BOP in order to keep them in line and prevent violence.

5:05pm: The security detail ordered for Dr. King by the Assistant Chief of the Memphis Police Department, and in place since his arrival, is cancelled.

5:30pm: Tornado warnings make Dr. King worry about the crowd at Mason Temple, where he is scheduled to speak.

8pm: James Lawson, a leader in the SCLC, calls King to tell him that the crowd is thinner than when he spoke at Mason Temple on March 18. Dr. King worries that this would invite the media to speculate that this was the end of the “King era.”

8:15pm: Dr. King asks Ralph Abernathy to speak for him. Ralph asks if Jesse Jackson wouldn’t be a better option, but King stays firm.

8:30pm: Instead of going to the podium, Abernathy goes to a telephone booth to call Dr. King and beg him to speak to the crowd, who had “braved a night of hell-fire” to hear King. Dr. King agrees to speak and makes his way to Mason Temple.

9:30pm: Dr. King begins his speech, just as the storm crests. Near the end, he departs from his prepared text to say:

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over.! And I’ve seen the Promised Land! I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land! And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

Sources:

Department of Justice Files: Records of the 

 Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI]

    (Record Group 65) 1896-1996.

Branch, Taylor: At Canaan’s Edge: America in the

King Years, 1965-68. Simon & Schuster, 2006.