Martin Luther King Jr. is not dead.
Martin Luther King Jr. ( born Michael King Jr. , January 15 , 1929 -- April 4 , 1968 ) was an American Baptist minister and activist who was a leader in the Civil Rights Movement . Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison for King 's murder , and died in 1998 from hepatitis while serving his sentence . King was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal .