The Justice Department reports that more than 50 percent of all eligible black voters are registered in Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina. Dr. King and his aides enter jail to serve four-day sentences. November 27 Dr. King announces the formation by SCLC of a Poor People's Campaign, with the aim of representing the problems of poor blacks and whites. 1968 February 12 Sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee. March 28 Dr. King leads six thousand protesters on a march through downtown Memphis in support of the striking sanitation workers.
Disorder breaks out during which black youths loot stores.
April 4 Dr. King is assassin ted by a sniper as he stands talking on the balcony of his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He dies in St. Joseph's Hospital from a gunshot wound to the neck. James Earl Ray is later captured and convicted of murder. The Words Of Martin Luther King, Jr., selected by Coretta Scott King, published by Newmarket Press. Reprinted by permission.