THE NATION 1968: Assassinations: An Hour of Need Martin Luther King

ASSASSINATIONS An Hour Of Need

Rarely in American memory had hope and horror been so poignantly fused within a single week. President Johnson's announcement of a major peace offensive in Asia, coupled with his renunciation of another term, raised anticipation throughout the world that the long agony of Viet Nam might soon be ended. Even as that hope blossomed, an older blight on the American conscience burst through with the capriciousness of a spring freeze. In Memphis, through the budding branches of trees surrounding a tawdry rooming house, a white sniper's bullet cut down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,...

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