The Lift and Death of Martin Luther King, Jr. On April 4, 1968, a shot rang out in Memphis, Tennessee, killing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leader of the civil rights movement was dead, felled by an assassin's bullet. Who was Martin Luther King, and why do we remember him? Award-winning author James Haskins chronicles Dr. King's life and the circumstances surrounding his death. With an afterword.