Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. disagrees with William F. Pepper's claims that the government killed King. He is supported by author Gerald Posner. Posner wrote "Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr." (1998), concluding that Ray killed King, acting alone, likely for the hope of collecting a racist bounty for the murder. On the other hand, conspiracy theorists bristled at "Killing the Dream", criticizing Posner for in part basing it on "a psychological evaluation of James Earl Ray, which he [Posner] is not qualified to give, and he dismisses evidence of conspiracy in King's murder as cynical attempts
Martin Luther King Jr. cities and states beginning in 1971; the holiday was enacted at the federal level by legislation signed by President Ronald Reagan in 1986. Hundreds of streets in the U.S. have been renamed in his honor, and a county in Washington State was also rededicated for him. The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was dedicated in 2011. King was born on January 15, 1929, in Atlanta, Georgia, to the Reverend Martin Luther King Sr. and Alberta Williams King. King's legal name at birth was Michael King, and his father was also born Michael King,