Martin Luther King always seemed to know that he wasn't going to make it to the end of his life naturally. Even in his most famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, he noted that he 'might not get there with you.' His method of peaceful protest - like that of Mahatma Gandhi decades earlier - had both furthered his cause and captured public imagination. Nobody - other than perhaps Rosa Parks - ever did more in the name of the Civil Rights movement than Dr. Martin Luther King.
King had a lot to be happy about at the time he was assassinated. He'd seen his movement turn from a murmur to a roar, and was winning over large audiences and friends in influential places. He smiles here for this picture at the Lorraine Motel on April 3rd, 1968. The following day, he was shot dead by James Earl Ray in Tennessee. In death, King became a symbol and a martyr. He died, but his dream never has nor ever will.