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The Rev Martin Luther King headed the campaign against segregation and racial discrimination in the United States But his crusade was cut dramatically short, when he was assassinated on 4
April 1968 in the southern US city of Memphis,Tennessee, aged 39. He was shot in the neck by a rifle bullet as he stood on a balcony from where he was to lead a march of sanitation workers protesting against low wages and poor working conditions. James Earl Ray was convicted of his murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. But he later retracted his confession and said he had been only a minor player in a conspiracy. However, his appeals for a new trial were rejected and he died in prison in 1998. |
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