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Dr. King was assassinated as he stood talking on the balcony of his second-floor room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. He died from a gunshot wound to the neck.

Dr. Martin Luther King, leader of the American Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis TN, while lending support to a sanitation workers' strike. He was shot by James Earl Ray at approximately 7:05 P.M. Ray's bullet struck King as he was standing on a balcony at the Lorraine Motel; King died approximately one hour later. Although no television cameras were in the vicinity at the time, television coverage of the event quickly followed.

News reports of King's wounding appeared first, but reporters remained consistent with the traditional news format, making early reports of the shooting seem both impersonal and inaccurate. Since the assassination occurred at the same time as the evening news, several anchormen received the information during their live broadcasts.

Because details of the shooting were not yet clear, inaccurate information was offered in several cases. Julian Barber of WTTG in Washington D.C. mistakenly reported that King had been shot while in his car. Following this presentation of incorrect details, Barber then proceeded to introduce the station's weatherman. The rest of the newscast followed a standard format with only minor interruptions following information about King's condition.

Walter Cronkite had almost finished delivering his report on The CBS Evening News when he received news of King's wounding. Visibly shaken, he announced the shooting. Moments after the announcement, however, the news program faded into commercial advertising. With little information available, the networks continued with their regularly scheduled programming and only later interrupted the programs with their station logos. At that point, an anonymous voice declared that King was dead.

Having received word of King's death, the three networks extant at the time, ABC, CBS, and NBC, interrupted programming with news. Awaiting President Lyndon B. Johnson's statement, all three featured anchormen discussing King's life and his contributions to the Civil Rights Movement.

The networks then broadcast Johnson's statement, in which he called for Americans to "reject the blind violence" which had killed the "apostle of nonviolence." In addition, the networks also covered Hubert Humphrey's response, and presented footage of King's prophetic speech from April 3, in which he acknowledged the precarious stages of his life. Although the networks had reporters positioned in Memphis, there were none on the scene because an official curfew had been imposed on the city in an attempt to prevent violence.

Television coverage prompted riots in 60 American cities including Chicago, Denver, and Baltimore. Television coverage of King's death and the riots it sparked continued for five days. The riots themselves commanded extensive coverage. The King assassination is a significant moment in the history of the Civil Rights Movement as well as in the history of the United States.

From the first reports of the shooting to the coverage of his funeral services on April 9 at the Ebenezer Church on the Morehouse College Campus, television closely followed his his struggle. Even after his death, news coverage of King's legacy continued when, on April 11, 1968, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Bill.