Martin Luther King Jr., a prominent American leader of the civil rights movement and Nobel Peace Prize winner, was shot and killed at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7:05 that evening. He was a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement who was known for his use of nonviolence and civil disobedience.