The Life of James Earl Ray: A Key to the Black Suffrage Movement

Each event and person living during the United State's civil rights movement affected the history of today. People like Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Emitt Till, and Medgar Evers were all victimized during this period, which only increased the movement's momentum to every household in America. The people fueling the movement's fire were people like J.W. Milam, Roy Bryant, a white bus driver, and Byron De La Beckwith. One person in particular that created the most shock and strife in the American life was James Earl Ray, who was guilty of shooting and killing civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th 1968 at a motel in Memphis.

James Earl Ray was born on March 10th 1928 in Alton, Illinois. His father, James Gerald Ray, raised his son James only to drop out of his Ewing, Montana high school in 1944. He later joined the military when he was later discharged for ineptness and lack of adaptability. This gives everyone and idea of who James Earl Ray was. It shows that he was not willing to achieve goals that are set and is a general all around moron. Ray was also presumed to be a white supremacist and a segregationist. It is said that he killed Martin Luther King for King's work with the civil rights movement. He had also spent a great deal of time in jail for a great deal of offenses including disorderly conduct, burglary (California 1949), armed robbery (Illinois 1952), forgery in 1955, another count of armed robbery (Missouri 1959), being a bum (hobo), escaping prison (April 23, 1967), Murder, and escaping from prison again. Obviously Ray was a criminal and had a criminal's mind, but some think he did not commit King's murder. The people who believed this included the King family.

Ray was spending time at the Missouri State Penitentiary, but he wasn't just visiting. Although the current state law for the time prohibited any prisoner from leaving the penitentiary and crossing several state lines, James earl Ray did it in 1967. He went to Memphis, Tennessee where Martin Luther King was staying at a hotel. One morning when King stepped out of his hotel for fresh air he was shot and killed. Ray then fled the scene only to be caught in the United Kingdom with a Canadian passport posing as Ramon George Sneyd. At the London airport, Ray was extradited back to Tennessee for the murder he had committed. Ray pleaded guilty on the wishes of his attorney, who was Percy Foreman, or who Ray later referred to as "Percy Fourflusher" to try and get the death penalty. He of course fired his attorney after taking the guilty plea and not being able to legally receive the death penalty explaining that a man named Raoul and Ray's Brother Johnny were deeply involved with the murder but that he himself did not shoot King. Ray's attempts at a retrial were all failures much like he was in high school. Ray and other inmates escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee in 1977 and recaptured 3 days later adding more years to his conviction and proving his ineptness. He died in prison on April 23, 1998 at age 70 due to a liver disease and hepatitis C that caused liver failure.

People who think Ray did not assassinate king have few solid facts. One such is Ray's intelligence level would prove him incompetent to plan such an event. His father said, "He couldn't have planned it alone. He wasn't smart enough for that." This proves he was guilty of conspiracy to murder but he might not have actually pulled the trigger. The King family, including Martin's son Dexter, supported Ray's innocence. Lloyd Jowers was taken to civil court and convicted of being part of the conspiracy to murder in 1997. After which Dr. William Pepper fought for Ray's Innocence until his death. In 2000, however, Attorney General Janet Reno concluded there was to evidence to support Ray's conspiracy claims.

When King was killed the nation was in shock of what had happened. They had let racism and civil disobedience go too far and gave the movement its greatest spark yet. Only a week after the assassination, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968 thereby prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. The rights of blacks were still not guaranteed and it took years and years after to fully understand the meanings behind life and indifferences unseen by bigot eyes.