Video: 'April 8, 1968: Memphis March Honors MLK'

(Monday, April 8, 1968; during the Memphis sanitation strike, part of the African-American civil rights movement (1954–1968)) — An estimated 42,000 people, led by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, silently marched through Memphis today in honor of her late husband, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

King, who was assassinated here four days before, had organized the march in support of the city’s predominantly African-American sanitation workers who were on strike.

Mrs. King, dressed in black and with her children at her side, challenged her followers to see that her husband’s spirit “never dies, and we will go forward from this experience — which to me represents the crucifixion — to resurrection and redemption of the spirit.”