Research answers the question: Was The Commercial Appeal responsible for Martin Luther King's death?

From the Commercial Appeal, Feb. 23, 1968. 

An examination into the Memphis Commercial Appeal from the winter of 1968 shows that the newspaper played a role in the death of Martin Luther King.

I recently presented a research paper “Beyond the Bounds of Tolerance: Commercial Appeal and the 1968 garbage strike” at The Media andCivil Rights Symposium at the University of South Carolina. The research examined the editorial page copy in the newspaper from February to April 1968. It specifically examined the editorials and the editorial cartoons.

It showed that the newspaper’s anti-union and paternalistic attitudes failed to act as a voice of reason. The strike of garbage workers is what precipitated the visit of Martin Luther King to Memphis, where he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968.

The research revealed that the newspaper’s belligerent tone at the start of the strike changed as violence began to erupt, and toward the end the newspaper was calling for conciliation. The newspaper at first vilified King and derided him for coming to Memphis. But after this death, the newspaper timidly praised him.

The research was enhanced by a never-before published interview with Frank Ahlgren, who was Commercial Appeal editor at the time. Ahlgren helps put into perspective the motives of the newspaper and its staff during the strike.

The symposium presentation was made on March 22, and it coincided with other research that focused on how the media influenced the civil rights era. Also attending the presentation was Hank Klibanoff, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Race Beat.