User:D33deed33guy/thesis

Throughout history there has been an ever more unessasarcy ethnic struggle beteen caucasions and african amercians. It began ith slavery and progressed to pure bigotry. This was prominent throughout the 20th century mostly between the post war world two era. Many towns abided by segrigation of blacks and whites. There were seprate fountains, resteraunts, and even schools. On buses, if a white man came on and all the seats were taken, a black man would be removed from his seat so the white man may sit. In 1955, african americans began to boycutt these systems. The most public one was when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on December 1st, 1955. Her arrest helped spark the civil rights movements.

During these movments, there were two prominent figures who, while had the same goal, went about with two different means. These two individuals were Malcolm Little, publicly known as Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Malcolm X wanted african americans to claim equality by means of violence and riots where as Martin Luther King Jr. wanted african americans ro use peacful methods like boycotts and walks. Of course these two were met with fierce oppsition from caucasions. The civil rights participants were attacked by police dogs, sprayed by hoses, beaten and even killed. Those behind these movements were no different. On February 21, 1965, civil rights leader Malcolm X was assaassinated in New York City while giving a speech. He was shot and killed by three organized terrorist who were beaten by listeners at the speech the and later convicted of his murder. Then, it appeared the sole civil right leader was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Despite the violent death of Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. still used peacful methods as a way to get equality across. King went on to lead civil rights rallies for years.

On April 4th, 1968, King headed to Memphis Tennessee to support a strike of African American sanitation workers. He stayed in the Lorraine hotel in room 306. King stood in his room with friends, Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Muscian Ben Branch and Reverand Jesse Jackson. King turned to Ben Branch as they stood on the hotel balcony and requested that he play "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" "real pretty". Suddenly, a gunshot was heard a King fell to the floor, fatally wounded. The bullet entered the right side of his chin, breaking his jaw, neck and several vertebrae as it travelled down, severing the jugular vein and major arteries in the process. King's friends pointed to where they thought the shots came from which has since become an iconic picture of this event. King was rushed to the hospital where surgery was performed and his heart was given a manual massage. However these efforts were in vein, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died from his injuries on 7:05 p.m. He was thirty-nine years old. Upon hearing about King's death, the African American community proceeded with violent riots and various types of rebellion so justice may be served for King's death. Many were calmed by the speech given by presidential hopeful and white civil rights leader, Robert F. Kennedy who, ironically, was assassinated a few years later. King's funeral was held on April 9th, 1968 and over 300,000 thousand people were in attendance as King's casket be pulled by a mule down the streets. .

After King's funeral, the feeling of grief was overcome with a feeling of vengeance and the hunt was on for King's killer. There were many idea's of perhaps government conspiracy, but the most prominent of the held idea's was that King was murdered by a white man. Suddenly, on June 8, 1968, a little more than two months after King's death, a man named James Earl Ray was captured at London's Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a fake Canadian passport. At check-in the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. He was using the name of Ramon George Sneyd. James Earl Ray was extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder.

James Early Ray was born in Alton, Illinois to a poor family. He dropped out of high school when he was fifteen years old to join the US Army during World War II and spent time in Germany. His path to crime started at the age of twenty-one when he was convicted of burglary in California. In 1952, at the age of twenty-seven, he served two years for armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. In 1955, at the age of thirty-one, he was convicted of mail fraud. After an armed robbery in Missouri in 1959, Ray was sentenced to twenty years in prison for his repeated offenses. He broke out of the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. After he escaped, James Earl Ray continued to move, going to St. Louis and then on to Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Birmingham. When he got to Alabama, Ray stayed long enough to buy a car, a 1966 Ford Mustang, and get an Alabama driver’s license. He drove to Mexico and settled down in Puerto Vallarta on October 19, 1967. James Earl Ray left Mexico around November 16, 1967. Eventually, James Earl Ray headed for Los Angeles. Before leaving Los Angeles,had a rhinoplasty performed. On March 18, 1968 Ray began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia. When Ray arrived in Atlanta, he checked into a rooming house. Ray had purchased a map of the city. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were, suspiciously, circled. James Earl Ray was back on the road and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. On March 30, 1968, he purchased a Remington Gamemaster 760 .30-06-caliber rifle and a box of 20 cartridges. He had also purchased a Redfield 2x7 scope. He told the store clerks that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. Ray still went under the name Galt, but when he bought the rifle, he gave his name as Harvey Lowmeyer. Once he had purchased the rifle, scope, and bullets, Ray decided to drive back to Atlanta. While there, Ray passed his time reading the Atlanta Constitution. The paper reported King’s planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for April 1, 1968. On April 2, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis.

You may wonder just what makes James Early Ray guilty of Martin Luther King's assassination. What evidence did the prosecution have? Well to start with, James Earl Ray was known racist. Ray harbored a strong prejudice towards African Americans. So much so that he went to support George Wallace's presidential campaign because of Wallace's pro-segregation views. He freely volunteered to promote Wallace's racist viewings. Obviously James Earl Ray was a racist individual. What else makes Ray guilty? Well James Earl Ray had circled Martin Luther King's whereabouts on a map which was recovered by police. Apparently Ray had been tracking King and had his home circled on the map. This clearly shows that James Earl Ray had some sort of interest in King and his whereabouts.