The witness to the murder of Martin Luther King for the first time told me that she saw

A woman who witnessed the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. almost 50 years ago, first told about what she had seen and heard.

Rhonda James.
Photo: WMC Action News 5 video frame

Rhonda James said she and her brother witnessed a murder in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, but never spoke about it because their mother wanted them to live a “normal life,” writes Daily Mail.

James was eight years old when her father, saxophonist Ben Branch, asked if she and her 11 year old brother wanted to go with him to meet with a well-known civil rights leader, and the children agreed.

The musician was going to play “Take My Hand, Precious Lord”For King, who came to Memphis to speak at a rally of sanitary workers. At first they drove the sound check to Mason Temple, then returned to the car and followed King to the hotel. Lorraine.

Upon arrival at the hotel, the children remained seated in the back seat of the car, which was parked under the 306 room in the hotel where the activist was staying.

At this moment King from the balcony shouted to Father James: “I want you to play.”Precision lord”Like never before played it. Play really very beautiful. ” These were the last words that a famous civil rights activist ever uttered. Thereafter James Earl Ray shot King from the second floor window across from the house. The woman said that after that all her memories were blurred, and that she and her brother were sitting in the car for the next six hours, not moving at all.

“When he was shot, he was lying on this concrete, there was blood all around, and everyone was bending over him. We couldn't move.

They walked around us with flashlights, the police were investigating what happened, and we were just little kids. My dad kept coming to the car asking if we were okay and trying to support us. He couldn’t leave because the police were talking to him, asking questions,” James said.

According to her, during these six hours she never thought about hunger, fatigue or the need to use the toilet. The woman remembered the smell of garbage, which was much on the streets because of the strike of the sanitary workers.

In the end, she said, the National Guard took them home, during the trip they were stopped at almost every intersection and the police checked the passengers' documents, and also asked about their destination.

James admitted that another reason she never talked about murder was because it was a traumatic experience for her that caused bad memories. After the murder, she and her brother did not go to school for two days. A woman admitted that 10-15 years after the tragedy, she wept bitterly every time she heard “Take My Hand, Precious Lord".

“I couldn't deal with it for a long time. Even now, sometimes I feel sad because it occurs to me that this was his last request to my father,” James explained.

Aside from a photograph of her father talking to the police, there is no official information that James or her brother were near the hotel on that fateful night.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Martin Luther King Day: Interesting Facts About the Freedom Fighter

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