Inspirational minister and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on 4 April 1968, whilst standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. In the days after his death civilians took to the streets to protest and mourn the loss of a figure so pioneering in the fight against racial inequality, despite his preaching of nonviolent action riots emerged when racial tensions caused citizens to clash.
His achievements for the equal rights movement were immense. King mobilised a movement that saw Congress pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But even more, he created a sense of unity, community and pride in activist all around the world.
King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and posthumously the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977 and Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. Yesterday, the world remembered this influential leader to mark fifty years since his assassination. View the moving images in the gallery below.
