Memphis workers reflect on Martin Luther King Jr. assassination 50 years later

Sanitation workers collect refuse from a truck decorated with images honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was shot and killed in Memphis in 1968 while championing their cause as workers, in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (Reuters) - A half century ago, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Memphis to march in support of the city's striking sanitation workers. It was the last trip the Baptist minister turned civil rights leader would make in the name of social justice.

On April 4, 1968, the day before the march was to begin, King, 39, was fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel by an avowed segregationist.