All day: FedEx is paying for free admission for everyone on Wednesday at the National Museum of Civil and Human Rights downtown. Features the "Live the Legacy" series of images by documentary photographer Jim Alexander. Extended hours: 9 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.
All day: "Remembrance Week" at the King National Historic Park will run from Wednesday, the anniversary of King's death, through Monday, the anniversary of his funeral procession. The Visitors Center, Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, and Freedom Hall are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Free.
All day: Beginning Wednesday, the 15-minute film, "The Last Days of King," will play in the National Historic Park's Visitors Center from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. The film features Coretta Scott King, members of the King family and close associates of MLK talking about King's life and death.
10 a.m. Silent open house tours of the King Birth Home will run from 10 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. To join the free tours, visitors must meet at the front steps of the Birth Home on Auburn Avenue, where a ranger will begin the tour.
1 p.m. "I've Been to the Mountaintop" peformances at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. in the Glenn Room at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. Austin Broughton performs King's unforgettable "Mountaintop" speech.
5:15 p.m. The National Historic Park will start a brief Remembrance Day commemorative program at 5:15 p.m. in the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church and end it at 6:01 p.m. On the day that King was killed in 1968, it was roughly 5:15 p.m. when he and his staff retreated to their rooms to dress for dinner.
7:01 p.m. King was shot exactly 50 years ago to the minute (at 6:01 p.m. Central Time). Bells will ring nationwide 39 times for King's 39 years. And the three King siblings – Martin III, Dexter and Bernice – and Martin III's daughter will lay a wreath at the crypt of Martin and Coretta King.
8 p.m. An hourlong television special, featuring reports from Memphis and Atlanta, begins on WSB-TV.
8:04 p.m. At the moment King was pronounced dead 50 years ago, the AJC and WSB will observe a moment of silence.
(A daylong series of activities and remembrances is planned for the Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. WSB-TV will be covering.)
On AJC.com, WSB-TV and WSB radio
The March 21 documentary 'The Last Days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.' on Channel 2 kicked off a countdown of remembrance across the combined platforms of Channel 2 and its partners, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and WSB Radio.
The three Atlanta news sources will release comprehensive multi-platform content through April 9, the anniversary of King’s funeral.
On April 4, the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's assassination, the three properties will devote extensive live coverage to the memorials in Atlanta, Memphis and around the country.
The project will present a living timeline in real time as it occurred on that day in 1968, right down to the time the fatal shot was fired that ended his life an hour later.
The project will culminate on April 9 with coverage of the special processional in Atlanta marking the path of Dr. King's funeral, which was watched by the world.
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