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The Death of Martin Luther King, Lorraine Motel, Memphis
The Death of Martin Luther King, Lorraine Motel, Memphis
Image © Worcester Art Museum, all rights reserved.

The Death of Martin Luther King, Lorraine Motel, Memphis

Artist (South African, about 1945–2004)
DateApril 4, 1968
Mediumgelatin silver print
Dimensionssight: 14 x 21.7 cm (5 1/2 x 8 9/16 in.)
frame: 44 x 54.2 cm (17 5/16 x 21 5/16 in.)
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Howard G. Davis, III A.K.A. David Davis
Object number2011.148
Label TextLouw was a South African television producer working on a documentary on the American Civil Rights movement. He was relaxing in his Memphis hotel room, a few doors down from Dr. King, when he heard a gunshot. He picked up his camera as he rushed to balcony and saw King collapse as his startled aides pointed to the source of the shot. “In that one moment,” Louw recalled, “the sound of the shot and the sight of Dr. King made me almost feel that wound, and I was terrified that it was going to happen to me.” Louw captured those feelings of pain and dread in one of the most memorable images of the period.
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