He knew when he was going to Memphis he was going to his death.

And he'd always said, look, death is the ultimate democracy.

Everybody's gonna die. and you don't have anything to say about when you die

or how you die or where you die.

You can only choose what is it you give your life for.

Hey everyone, I'm Jonathan Cape Heart

and welcome to Cape Up.

That was former Ambassador Andrew Young talking about the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

Andrew Young was King's chief strategist with the SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

None of my mother's friends wanted me to be associated with that radical Martin Luther King and those crazy Baptist

preaches. Today marks the 51st anniversary of King's assassination and so I'm going

to tell you the story of that day.

Now I know you may think you know this story already.

After all, it's been re-told over and over again

in newspapers, movies, and books.

There are probably even other podcasts telling this story today.

But I'm going to let some of the people who were there tell you, the people who were closest

to Martin Luther King Jr. Those who knew him, who argued with him, who followed him, and those who loved him.

This is the first episode in a special two-month K-Pup series series, we're calling, Voices of the Movement.

Between sit-downs at a civil rights retreat in January in California, and the Faith

and Politics Institute's civil rights pilgrimage to Alabama in March

have been lucky enough to hear these stories firsthand. What a privilege and a

...