Who was the U.S. President at the time of Martin Luther King's assassination?
Lyndon B. Johnson. Martin Luther King, American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. President Lyndon B. Johnson made a personal call to King's wife, Coretta Scott King, and declared April 7 a national day of mourning, on which the U.S. flag would be flown at half-staff.