MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed on the balcony of a motel in Memphis.

Now that motel, The Lorraine, is the site of the National Civil Rights Museum. Crowds began lining up Wednesday morning to be part of the event. The civil rights leader known for trying to win equality without using violence was in Memphis in April of 1968 to support striking sanitation workers. James Earl Ray was convicted of assassinating Dr. King after entering a guilty plea.

A wreath-laying ceremony was also held Wednesday in Washington D.C.

There are also observances in Milwaukee Wednesday, April 4:

5:30 p.m. at St. Gabriel’s Church at 37^th and Custer

6:00 p.m. at Alverno College