It was April 5^th 1968. A cold winter day in Ann Arbor. It was my first semester in the graduate school. As I was entering the Randall Building on East University street , a friend coming out dragged me aside. ‘ You know what has happened , Is’nt it ?” . I was living in an old house with few other graduate students. We had no TV at home. We thought we should save money and bought no newspaper either. I nodded my head. He said “ Martin Luther King was assassinated last night in Memphis !” . King had gone to Memphis to look into a strike there. While he was standing on the motel's 2nd floor balcony in the evening , a white man shot him . He was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at around 7 p.m.

It took some time for me to digest the news. I remembered the streets were not very busy that morning. May be people were all indoors watching TV. The diag (central ) area was kind of deserted. I was also not in a mood to study. I went home thinking of the other assassinations of history . Of course there was the assassination of Mahatma who was the role model for Martin Luther King. Then the other famous one was of John Kennedy in 1963.

My friend Shah and I went to the A and P (The Atlantic and Pacific tea company – the name always fascinated me) supermarket. When I was trying to pick up some milk, a very old white lady came up to me and said ‘Hello’. I returned her greetings. She had tears in her eyes and took my hand in her hands and said “ I am very sorry for you and for your people”. I thanked her and I could not help wiping few tears off my face. I told this to my friend who replied that I should have corrected her. I told him that it had not occurred to me and it did not matter anyway. The whole world had lost a great man, not just a great black man. He was only 39 years old !

It was one the most violent years in the life of United States of America. The assassination led to riots in many cities. Few months later Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles. It was an election year which was full of protests, sit-ins, etc America was entering a new phase in its life .

( This was what Martin Luther King told some friends few days before his death (from Wikipedia) :

What would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers?
Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's success with non-violent activism, King visited India in 1959.. The trip to India affected King in a profound way, deepening his understanding of non-violent resistance and his commitment to America’s struggle for civil rights. In a radio address made during his final evening in India, King reflected, “Since being in India, I am more convinced than ever before that the method of nonviolent resistance is the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for justice and human dignity. In a real sense, Mahatma Gandhi embodied in his life certain universal principles that are inherent in the moral structure of the universe, and these principles are as inescapable as the law of gravitation.”

The following pik is of King and his wife with Pandit Nehru :