MLK Death Balcony Opens To Public

The motel balcony where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) was shot dead will be opened to public.

MLK Death Balcony Opens (Photo: Youtube)

Starting November 19th, visitors to the famous Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee can have access and stand on the balcony of Room 306, where the American black civil rights leader was assassinated in 1968.

Visitors had been able to take a peek of the upper-floor balcony but couldn't stand on it.

The motel, which is now the site of the National Civil Rights Museum, is currently undergoing a $27 million renovation expected to be finished by 2014.

King was in Memphis that time to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions.

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, King was hit by a sniper's bullet while on the balcony in front of his motel room. The .30-caliber rifle bullet entered King's right cheek, traveled through his neck, and finally stopped at his shoulder blade. King was immediately taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.

King's death led to a nationwide wave of race riots in Washington D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City, and dozens of other cities.

An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was later arrested. Ray, who was sentenced to 99 years in prison, died in April 1998 at the age of 70.