ABSTRACT
The shock of King’s murder reverberated around the world. In London The Times spoke of a great loss for the world. Pope Paul VI expressed his “profound sadness.” The Daily Graphic in Ghana’s capital, Accra, which King had visited nearly a decade earlier, was particularly outraged. The American “affluent society,” it declared, was actually “a fraudulent society – a human jungle wherein the black man is the target for destruction, even extermination.” Noting that King had been scheduled to visit their war-torn country on April 15, Nigerian officials condemned “this sad and inhuman killing,” and declared that, like Gandhi’s murder, King’s would “have meaning only if US Negroes achieve equality and human dignity in the shortest possible time and without resorting to a bloody struggle.” In a rare tribute to a foreign citizen, the Indian Parliament observed a minute’s silence.
