MLK-Is it a CT

MLK killed by the FBI: Is it a Conspiracy Theory?
Answer: yes.

MLKing’s death investigation according to Keeley’s definition is a conspiracy theory because it goes counter to the “official story”.

Official Story of MLK Death:
According to (history.com), Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968 by a man named James Earl Ray. King was a Baptist minister and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and had led the civil rights movement since the mid-1950s, using a combination of speeches and nonviolent protests to fight segregation and achieve significant civil-rights advances for African Americans. His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among black Americans, rightfully so.

What is the conspiracy?
MLK's death was a controversial death mainly because so many people wanted him dead during this time period. So the belief a man with little to no motivation came up with this plan to kill Martin was a little hard to believe. In the (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis),the King family and others in the civil rights movement believed in the FBI’s obsession with King in the years leading up to his death in Memphis on April 4, 1968.With their pervasive surveillance, a malicious disinformation campaign and open denunciations by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover he for the most part laid the groundwork for their belief that he was the target of a plot.

Ray had originally plead guilty according to (https://www.britannica.com/topic/assassination-of-Martin-Luther-King-Jr)on March 13, 1969, three days after his sentencing, but Ray recanted his guilty plea, saying that Foreman had coerced him into making it. Meanwhile,Ray continued to fight for his innocence. As stated in (https://www.npr.org/2018/04/04/598826351/despite-swirl-of-conspiracy-theories) he attracted allies such as William Pepper, who became his lawyer and who eventually wrote three books on the King assassination.Pepper expressed to interviewers he spent five hours interrogating Ray behind bars, and came away with the conclusion that Ray didn't do it. They appealed the case and tried it at the Supreme Court however didn't have any luck.The remainder of his life was spent arguing various conspiracy theories in defense of his innocence and punctuating those efforts with escape attempts.

The committee concluded that there was a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of Dr. King. To summarize, several findings were central to the committee's conspiracy conclusion. First, James Earl Ray was the assassin of Dr. King, and Raoul, as described by Ray, did not exist. According to(https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report) the committee rejected the possibility that James Earl Ray was an unwitting "fall guy manipulated by others. The committee found, rather, that Ray acted with full knowledge of what he was doing in the murder of Dr. King.

Bibliography
1.)https://www.npr.org/2018/04/04/598826351/despite-swirl-of-conspiracy-theories-investigators-say-the-mlk-case-is-closed
2.)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Martin_Luther_King_Jr.
3.)https://www.britannica.com/topic/assassination-of-Martin-Luther-King-Jr/Conspiracy-theories
4.)https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/select-committee-report/part-2b.html#conclusion
5.)https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/30/who-killed-martin-luther-king-jr-his-family-believes-james-earl-ray-was-framed/

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