Martin Luther King Jr. was shot on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

Exact location

  • Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while standing on the second-floor balcony in front of room 306 at the Lorraine Motel.
  • The motel is located at 450 Mulberry Street in Memphis, Tennessee, in the South Main district of downtown Memphis.

Brief context

  • King was in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers and was preparing to attend a dinner that evening when he stepped out onto the balcony.
  • A single rifle shot fired from a nearby rooming house struck him as he stood on the balcony, and he later died at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Memphis.