1968

 I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. 

On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was in Memphis,Tennessee in support of a strike of sanitation workers.  He gave a speech that spoke of the efforts in support of the strike, and what would be necessary, and what they would do together to succeed. He also touched on the state of the civil rights movement and how much further there was to go.

He referred to The Promised Land at the start of the speech, musing on possible times and places he might have wanted to see. When he returns there at the end, as well, it's to consider the escape of the Israelites from slavery, and the fate of their leader, Moses. Many years after leaving Egypt behind, Moses is allowed to see the endpoint of the journey, across the River Jordan, but God does not allow him to enter.

The speech finishes with a lyric from The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which had been based originally on the song John Brown's Body, and which itself ends with a call to die so others may be free.

For mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!

They were the last words Dr. Martin Luther King spoke in public.

Early the next morning, while outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, King was struck by a single rifle bullet. He was pronounced dead at 7:05 in the evening. Robert Kennedy, on the presidential campaign trail in Indianapolis, would give a short but sincere speech acknowledging the possible reactions to the tragic events of the day. It was one of the few times he mentioned  his brother's death four and a half years earlier.  James Earl Ray confessed to the killing after a worldwide manhunt captured him two months later. (He would later recant the confession and unsuccessfully attempt to get a trial by jury.) The sanitation worker's strike would be resolved in the worker's favor, including recognition of their union.

King was buried in Atlanta, and his gravestone bears the line from an old spiritual, one he used to end his best known speech, not quite five years previous:

Free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, I'm Free at last.