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Editor's note: This article is a part of a series reviewing Utah and U.S. history for KSL.com's Historic section.
SALT LAKE CITY — Many in Utah were focused on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ upcoming 138th Annual General Conference when the news that prominent civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated at a motel in Memphis trickled in.
King’s death — 50 years ago Wednesday — left people across the nation stunned.
In Utah, the news came on the eve of the LDS Church’s annual conference and surpassed the coverage of the conference’s first day. President Hugh B. Brown, first counselor to Church President David O. McKay at the time, also addressed King’s assassination in the opening session.
“At this time we express deep sorrow and shock at the news of the passing of Martin Luther King (Jr.), a man who dedicated his life to what he believed to be the welfare of his people,” Brown said, according to a Deseret News report in an April 5, 1968, edition.
“It’s a shocking thing that in this age such a thing could happen," he continued. "We pray God’s blessings upon his family, his friends and those associated with him.”
The LDS Church was joined by statements from various religions and Christian denominations in the state, paying their respects to the slain reverend.
“Dr. King’s main contribution was his ability to combine confrontation and non-violence. This combination was his big secret; this combination was his goal,” said the Very Rev. Wesley Frensdorff, dean of the St. Mark’s Episcopal Cathedral at the time, according to an April 6, 1968, Deseret News article.
In addition, Utah’s NAACP chapter, members of the Salt Lake’s Trinity AME Church, University of Utah students and others gathered that day to pay tribute to King at a vigil at Trinity AME Church, 239 E. 600 South.
A second memorial was held at the Cathedral of the Madeleine two days later.
Utah’s representatives also chimed in, mourning King’s death in the hours after the news broke.
“Dr. King was a man of rare intelligence and humanity … perhaps this murder will shock us into improving our understanding of the basic cause of racial hostility,” said Utah Rep. Sherman Lloyd.
Nationally, President Lyndon B. Johnson canceled a well-publicized meeting with North Vietnamese officials in Hawaii and instead focused on the increased racial tensions after the news broke.
Violence and arson broke out across many American cities after King’s assassination was reported, according to an April 5 Associated Press article.
“The dream of Martin Luther King has not died with him,” Johnson said in a statement. “Men who are white — men who are black — must and will join together now as never in the past to let all the forces of division know that America shall not be ruled by the bullet but by the ballot of free and just men.”
Major League Baseball games were even postponed. In fact, the last time all MLB teams opened on the same day happened in 1968 because some teams, including the Washington Senators, postponed their opening day because of King’s funeral the following week, according to the Washington Post and news stories from the time.
King’s legacy remains large on the country 50 years later. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill declaring the third Monday of each January a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1993, Salt Lake City renamed 600 East, where the Trinity AME Church held the city’s first vigil for King, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
“I think when the name Martin Luther King Boulevard is placed on 600 South, it will be a daily reminder to all who come into this city that this city understands and appreciates the great contribution that Martin Luther King Jr. made," Boyer Jarvis, a member of the Salt Lake County Human Services Advisory Council told reporters after the city unanimously passed a resolution for the road name change on May 3, 1993.
Signage was replaced later that year.
Salt Lake Calvary Baptist Church pastor France Davis recalls marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 (via KSL Newsradio):
