The founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Council, Martin Luther King was the leader of the civil rights movement in the United States. With Jo Ann Robinson, King organised peaceful protests against segregation in the United States, primarily the Jim Crow states like Alabama where African Americans were discriminated by segregation laws. The peaceful demonstrations including sit ins, boycotts and marches (inspired by Mahatma Ghandi's peaceful protests for Indian Independence) eventually led him to Washington DC where he gave his famous "I have a dream speech". Sadly, even with new laws being signed to eradicate racial segregation, he wasn't safe from assassinations. On 4 April 1968, Martin Luther King was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee by James Earl Ray. The stress of the 13-year-long Civil Rights movement left the 39-year- old King with the heart of a 60-year-old man. At his funeral, a young Samuel L Jackson who would act in films like Marvel's Avengers was an usher while singer Aretha Franklin sang Precious Lord, Take my Hand".