missouri, in 1967, the year before he killed king. he spent time in mexico. spent time in california. by 1968, he was reportedly intoxicated with the reactionary campaign of george wallace, the segregationist alabama governor, who ran for president in 1968 on an anti-civil rights, pro-segregation, white supremacist platform. james earl ray volunteered on the wallace for president campaign. even beyond that, he was just increasingly committed to the racist cause more broadly. and in the spring of 1968, james earl ray moved to atlanta. he had been living on the west coast. moved across the country to atlanta, where martin luther king lived and where he preached at ebenezer baptist church. he seems to have gone to atlanta in pursuit of dr. king. and in april of 1968, king took a trip from atlanta to memphis, tennessee. it was widely publicized he was going to do it. he wentgo to memphis to support the striking sanitation workers there. james earl ray followed martin luther king
army in the late 40s he had been in and out of prison for years, he had actually escaped from prison in missouri in 1967, the year before he killed king. after his escape from prison in missouri he spent time in mexico, he also spent time in california. by 1968 he was reportedly really intoxicated with the reactionary presidential campaign of george wallace. the segregationist alabama governor who ran for president in 1968 on an anti civil rights segregation white supremacist platform. james earl ray volunteered for the campaign, but even beyond that he was increasingly committed to the racist cause more broadly. and in the spring of 1968, james earl ray moved to atlanta. he had been moving on the west coast, he moved to atlanta where martin luther king lived, and where he preached at this church james or earl ray appears to have gone to atlanta specifically in pursuit of dr. king. and in april of 1968, king took a trip to memphis tennessee. it was widely publicized that he
pro-segregation, white supremacist platform. james earl ray volunteered on the wallace for president campaign. even beyond that, he was just increasingly committed to the racist cause more broadly. and in the spring of 1968, james earl ray moved to atlanta. he had been living on the west coast. moved across the country to atlanta, where martin luther king lived and where he preached at ebenezer baptist church. james earl ray appears to have gone to atlanta, specifically in pursuit of dr. king. and in april of 1968, king took a trip from atlanta to memphis, tennessee. it was widely publicized he was going to do it. he went to memphis to support the striking sanitation workers there. james earl ray followed martin luther king to memphis. and he killed him there. he shot and killed dr. king, as king stood on the balcony of a motel in memphis, the lorraine motel. and for much of america, it must have seemed like time stopped in that moment. part of our history absolutely did stop
and then in 1965 he enlisted in the united states army. now, if you are doing the math, him enlisting in 1965, that was way before the draft for vietnam. the draft for vietnam didn t start until years later in late 1969. he went in there before that by choice, he enlisted in 1965, and then in 1967 he volunteered to be sent to vietnam. he did nearly a year in combat from the spring of 1967 to the spring of 1968. in april of 1968 he earned the silver star, and there was an attack on his battalion command post. he exposed himself to enemy fire, to pull his injured colleagues to safety to give them first aid. he earned the silver star that day, april 1968. it was a thursday in april. and that thursday that he earned the silver star that he went through that hell, he was actually only a few days away from going home, only a few days away from the end of his tour. but four days after that battle for which he earned the silver star, the monday after that thursday a grenade blast too
right now. good evening from new york, i m chris hayes, tonight i m going to play for you a recording of a death threat that was recently called into a republican member of congress. and what precipitated that that threat is that the fact of this member voted for a bill road for bridges, stuff like that, the bipartisan bill, that s the whole reason for the death threat. let s take a step, back think back to about a year and a half ago march of 2020. the once in the century pandemic had just, did we just shut everything down, school, travel, businesses. it hit number happened before. everyone was kind of confused and scared, and the economy was catering americans, they were losing their job by the million, and respond to this crisis, members of crisis came together. the republican controlled senate, and the democratic-controlled house, passed in broad bipartisan fashion, a 2.2 trillion dollar rescue package called the cares act. at the, time everyone knew the package was nec