Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. King had been targeted by COINTELPRO and had also been under surveillance by military intelligence agencies during the period leading up to his assassination under the code name Operation Lantern Spike. A church minister, Ronald Denton Wilson, claimed his father, Henry Clay Wilson, assassinated Martin Luther King Jr., not James Earl Ray. He stated, "It wasn't a racist thing; he thought Martin Luther King was connected with communism, and he wanted to get him out of the way." But Wilson had reportedly previously admitted his father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. In 2004, Jesse Jackson, who
Martin Luther King III In May 2006, Martin Luther King III married longtime girlfriend Arndrea Waters. On May 25, 2008, the couple had a daughter, Yolanda Renee King, the first and only grandchild of Martin Luther King and Coretta Scott King. She was named after her aunt, Yolanda King, who had died of a heart condition at age 51 in Santa Monica, California, the previous year. Yolanda Renee appeared with her family at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington celebration, where President Obama and various leaders and other notable persons were charmed by her presence. Yolanda Renee helped her family ring a