Fifty years after civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr was gunned down on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Americans gathered at that same hotel, and around the country, to honour his legacy and reflect on how much further the nation still has to travel to meet his dream.

Thousands of people turned out to celebrate the life of the activist and preacher, who lead countless boycotts, walkouts, and marches in the fight to end racial segregation and discrimination in the US.



Hundreds flocked to the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was shot and killed on 4 April 1968. Two of King’s children gathered at the hotel – now known as the National Civil Rights Museum – along with civil rights leaders Reverend Jesse Jackson and Reverend Al Sharpton.

King’s youngest daughter, Bernice, told supporters how difficult it was to remember her father’s assassination, which came one day after his famous “Mountaintop” speech to striking sanitation workers. Ms King was just five years old at the time.

“It’s important to see two of the children who lost their daddy 50 years ago to an assassin’s bullet,” she said. “But we kept going. Keep all of us in prayer as we continue the grieving process for a parent that we’ve had yet to bury.”

Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Show all 10 1 /10 Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King during his famous 'I have a dream' speech in Washington in 1963 AP Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 AFP/Getty Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1929 - 1968) arriving at London Airport. He is in England to be the chief speaker at a public meeting about colour prejudice and to appear on the BBC television programme 'Face To Face' Getty Images Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr. tells a Miami, Florida news conference, that he will go to Los Angeles to meet with black and white leaders and help create "a community of love" in the violence torn city in August 1965 AP Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr. and his civil rights marchers head for Montgomery, the state's capitol, March 21, 1965, during a five day, 50 mile walk to protest voting laws AP Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King An image from 1960 shows Martin Luther King at a meeting Getty Images Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King leading freedom marchers in Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 AP Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Civil rights protestors marching from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, where the March on Washington climaxed in Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech Getty Images Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King Martin Luther King and the March on Washington BBC Martin Luther King: Life in pictures Martin Luther King March on Washington – 1963 Famous for Martin Luther King Jnr’s “I have a dream” speech, the march on Washington saw 300,000 people gathering at the Lincoln Memorial calling for equal rights for African-Americans Getty

Ms King and her brother, Martin Luther King III, would later travel to Atlanta, where they would participate in a bell-ringing and wreath-laying ceremony at their father’s crypt to mark the moment when he was killed. Their brother, Dexter, and Martin III’s daughter, Yolanda, were also scheduled to participate.

In an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, Martin III said he thought his father would be proud of the non-violent movements happening in the US today – from the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, to the student-led protests for gun control.

“He would know that we as a nation can, must, and will do better,” Martin III said.

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Congressman John Lewis, a contemporary of King’s, marked an anniversary of his own on Wednesday. For the first time in 50 years, he returned to Martin Luther King Park in Indianapolis – the same place where he heard Senator Robert Kennedy announce King’s death back in 1968.

“If it hadn’t been for Martin Luther King Jr, I don’t know what would have happened to our nation,” Mr Lewis said. “I don’t know what would have happened to many of us that had been left out and left behind.”

He added: “I thank God that he lived. He taught us how to live. He taught us how to stand up – to be brave, courageous, and bold, and to never give up.”

US race relations: The enduring legacy of Martin Luther King Show all 2 1 /2 US race relations: The enduring legacy of Martin Luther King US race relations: The enduring legacy of Martin Luther King April 1965: Dr Martin Luther King (1929-1968) addresses civil rights marchers in Selma, Alabama Keystone/Getty US race relations: The enduring legacy of Martin Luther King Martin Luther King III has taken on his father's work and isactive in helping those in poverty and those who are on the margins of society. His father, who was killed in 1968, was a hero to many, but just plain Daddy when he was at home DAVID SANDISON

Mr Lewis also appeared in a video with former president Barack Obama to commemorate the occasion. In the video, the pair visited students at the Ron Brown College Preparatory High School in Washington, DC.

“As long as we’re still trying, Dr King’s soul is still rejoicing,” Mr Obama told the students.

President Donald Trump acknowledged the anniversary in a tweet, linking to a video of his own, previous comments on King’s legacy. In a proclamation issued by the White House, Mr Trump said it was not up to the government to achieve Dr King’s ideals, but rather up to “the people of this great country, who will see to it that our Nation represents all that is good and true, and embodies unity, peace, and justice”.

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The celebration in Memphis on Wednesday highlighted King’s struggle against economic inequality – the same struggle that brought him to the city the night he died.

King had travelled to Tennessee that week to speak with sanitation workers, who were striking over low wages and unsafe working conditions. In the final speech of his life, King urged the workers to continue fighting to “make America what it ought to be”.

“We’ve got to give ourselves to this struggle until the end,” King said that night. “Nothing would be more tragic than to stop at this point in Memphis. We’ve got to see it through.”

Some of the same workers who participated in that strike sat in the front row at Wednesday’s event. Hundreds of others gathered outside a union headquarters that morning before a march marking the occasion.

Meanwhile, the organisers of a new Poor People’s Campaign – the same economic justice campaign King was organising at the time of his death – announced there would be a new wave of action in the coming days.