MLK Assassination and Religion

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, sent shock waves around the nation and around the world. Religious leaders claimed King as a fellow minister. An interdenominational prayer service was held at Little Rock’s Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, sponsored by the Arkansas Council of Churches and the Ministerial Alliance of Greater Little Rock. The two organizations condemned King’s killing and urged all religious people to join the civil rights movement to quote “bring character, justice and righteousness at this time of stress and need.” Confessing the complicity of the church in not doing enough for civil rights, they declared, quote “we have been guilty of arrogance, self-righteousness ungodliness, and too little Christianlikeness.”