Surrounded by supporters, advisors, and security personnel, Dr. King, Jr. prepares for his speech at the United Nations

The photographer Benedict J. Fernandez documented the last year of Martin Luther King’s life, later compiling these photographs into a portfolio entitled Countdown to Eternity. King (1929–1968) was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He worked tirelessly in what was to be the last year of his life, extending his activism to speak out against America’s involvement in the Vietnam War and the alienation and disenfranchisement faced by America’s poor. Fernandez took these images of King in 1967, documenting his efforts in campaigns across the country.