Who was the only reporter present when the visible spokesperson and leader in the Civil Rights Movement was assassinated?
Earl Caldwell (journalist) Earl Caldwell (born c. 1935) is an American journalist. He documented the Black Panthers from the inside in the 1970s, and became embroiled in a key U.S. Supreme Court decision clarifying reporters' rights. The case started when the FBI tried to press Caldwell to be an informant against the Black Panther Party. He worked for "The New York Times", "New York Daily News", "The New York Amsterdam News" and is currently on the radio in New York City. His career as a journalist spans more than four decades. He witnessed and chronicled some of the most important civil rights events from the 1960s onwards and was the only reporter present when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Caldwell is a founding member of the steering committee of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, as well as the Washington-based Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In 2009 he was inducted into the National Association of Black Journalists Hall of Fame.
Ralph Abernathy Ralph David Abernathy Sr. (March 11, 1926 – April 17, 1990) was a leader of the Civil Rights Movement, a minister, and a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr.. In 1955, he collaborated with King to create the Montgomery Improvement Association, which led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In 1957, Abernathy co-founded, and was an executive board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Following the assassination of King, Abernathy became president of the SCLC. As president of the SCLC, he led the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. during 1968. Abernathy also served as an advisory committee member of the Congress on Racial Equality (CORE). He later returned to the ministry, and in 1989 — the year before his death — Abernathy wrote, "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down: An Autobiography", a controversial autobiography about his and King's involvement in the Civil Rights Movement.