Today is the anniversary of the assassination of great, forward thinking Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Below are a collection of unpublished photographs taken only a few hours after his death by LIFE photographer Henry Groskinsky. All photos can be found on the Life magazine website.
“The Lorraine Motel photographed in the hours after Dr. King’s assassination, April 4, 1968”
“The building on the left is the abandoned building from which Groskinsky took several of his photographs on the night of April 4; the building on the right might well be the house from which James Earl Ray shot Dr. King.”
“Colleagues gather on the balcony outside the Lorraine Motel’s room 306, just a few feet from where Dr. King was shot.”
“Martin Luther King Jr.’s neatly packed, monogrammed briefcase in his room at the Lorraine Motel, April 4, 1968 — with his brush, his pajamas, a can of shaving cream and his book, Strength to Love, visible in the pocket.”
Life Love and Seoul 