mlk’s final speech

Commemorating the 40th anniversary of his assassination, Memphis magazine has a timeline of the last “31 hours, 28 minutes” of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life, including this passage about his final speech:

10:30 p.m. — King concludes his speech with, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!” and takes a seat, his eyes wet with tears. Honey writes, “Pandemonium swept Mason Temple as people came to their feet — applauding, cheering, yelling, crying.” Another minister observes, “When he sat down, he was just crying. He sure was.” Preachers sometimes cried, but he had never seen King do it. “This time it seemed like he was just saying, ‘Goodbye, I hate to leave.'”

(via The Plank)