Jesse Jackson was at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Jackson was standing in the parking lot talking to King, who was on a balcony above him. According to Jackson, the two men had the following exchange: “He said, ‘You’re late for dinner…You don’t even have on a shirt and tie.’ I said, ‘Doc, the prerequisite for eating is appetite, not a tie.’ He laughed and said, ‘You’re crazy.’ ” King then said a few words to Ben Branch, who was beside him on the balcony, before being shot by James Earl Ray. Jackson and others rushed to give aid, and King was taken to a nearby hospital. However, emergency surgery proved futile.