Editor’s note: This article was initially released in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
In September 1958, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a young, emerging figure in the growing civil rights movement. He was seated, autographing copies of his debut book at a department store in Harlem.
At just 29 years old, King was signing a copy of “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story” when a well-dressed woman with cat’s eye glasses approached him.
“Are you Martin Luther King?” she inquired.
“Yes,” King replied, continuing to sign the book without looking up.
In a swift motion, Izola Ware Curry thrust a 7-inch ivory-handled steel letter opener into King’s chest. Concealed in her bra was a loaded .25-caliber automatic pistol, which she was prevented from reaching.
Curry, aged 42, made no attempt to flee.
“I’ve been after him for six years,” she declared. “I’m glad I done it.”
A photograph from that fateful day captured King being attended to by supporters as the letter opener’s handle protruded from his chest. Despite suffering a minor wound on his hand while instinctively trying to defend himself, King remained composed.
The freelance photographer who documented the scene, Vernoll Coleman, recounted that King seemed unaware of the stabbing immediately after it occurred.
“Dr. King held his right hand after the stabbing,” Coleman shared.
The gravity of King’s injury was not immediately apparent in the photo. The blade had come dangerously close to his heart, requiring hours of intricate surgery to extract without causing further harm.
King later revealed that his doctors informed him that even a sneeze could have been fatal due to the blade’s proximity to his aorta.
Reflecting on the incident in his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968, King recounted the peril he had faced.
“That blade had gone through, and the X-rays revealed that the tip of the blade was on the edge of my aorta, the main artery,” King disclosed. “And once that’s punctured, you’re drowned in your own blood – that’s the end of you.”
During his recovery, King received a poignant letter from a ninth-grade white girl expressing relief that he had survived the attack. This message resonated with King, who acknowledged his gratitude for escaping death.
King acknowledged the pivotal events he would have missed if he had not survived, including pivotal moments in the civil rights movement such as the Freedom Rides and the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
On the eve of his assassination, King expressed thankfulness for his survival, emphasizing the significance of the progress made in the fight for equality.
The following day, tragedy struck as King was fatally shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. James Earl Ray confessed to the assassination, though doubts and conspiracy theories persist.
Curry, diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and deemed unfit to stand trial, spent the remainder of her life in psychiatric care facilities. Her mental health struggles and delusions, particularly regarding King and the NAACP, underscored the tragic events leading to the stabbing.
Despite her troubled state, Curry lived out her final years in a nursing home in Queens, passing away on March 7, 2015, at the age of 98.
Editor’s note: This article was initially released in 2018 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
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