Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated 50 years ago in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a prominent civil rights leader known for his advocacy of nonviolent protest and his "I Have a Dream" speech. While King's work helped advance civil rights, some of the issues he fought against, like lack of access to clean water, still persist today in some communities. In Martin County, Kentucky, decades of deteriorating infrastructure have left many residents without reliable access to clean drinking water, relying on rain collection and mountain springs instead of water pipes. Fixing America's aging water systems will require major investment to address problems that have been allowed to worsen over many years.

1. The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; A Kentucky Community Lives Without
Clean Drinking Water
Aired April 4, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM
AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Hi. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10. This April 4th, 2018,
we`re starting with a look back at an event from April 4th, 1968, an event that
changed a nation.
Fifty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis
Tennessee. He was a Baptist minister and an activist. He was a writer and a gifted
speaker.
He delivered his most famous speech during the march on Washington in 1963. He
was named "Time Magazine`s" Man of the Year in 1963. He received a Nobel Peace
Prize in 1964.
And today, Dr. King is remembered as being one of the most renowned civil rights
leaders in history.
One of his main goals was to use what he called non-violent direct action, peaceful
protests like marches and sit-ins to promote equal treatment for African-Americans
in the U.S.
Dr. King was no stranger to controversy. He was arrested and jailed in solitary
confinement for leading a march in Birmingham in Alabama. He spoke out publicly
against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, which angered many people in the late
1960s. Some of his activism on behalf of America`s poor failed to get the results
that he and his supporters hoped for.
Not long before his assassination, Dr. King said in a sermon, quote: Living every day
under the threat of death, I feel discouraged every now and then and feel my work is
in vain, but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again.
A half century later, it`s clear Dr. King`s work was not in vain.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

2. DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is unbelievable. You
look up there, it says Mason Temple, this is where Martin Luther King 50 years ago
gave his incredible Mountaintop speech.
SUBTITLE: April 2, 1968, King gave an emotional speech at the Mason Temple in
Memphis.
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: I just want to do God`s will.
And he has 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!
BASH (voice-over): That night, April 3rd, 1968, King checked in here, to Lorraine
Motel.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He gets dressed around 5:45 and he steps outside of the
balcony of room 306, and he speaks to other guests that are in the courtyard.
SUBTITLE: April 4, approximately 6:01 p.m., King was shot while standing on this
motel balcony.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At approximately 6:01, the final shot rings out. Dr. King lies
mortally wounded on the balcony. He`s taken from the balcony to St. Joseph`s
Hospital and he`s pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
SUBTITLE: On the night of King`s assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson
addressed the nation.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER PRESIDENT: Shocked and saddened by the brutal
slaying tonight of Dr. Martin Luther King. I ask every citizen to reject the blind
violence that has struck Dr. King, who lived by nonviolence.
SUBTITLE: Fifty years later, a bipartisan group of members of Congress visited the
site where MLK Jr. was assassinated.
REP. KEITH ELLISON (D), MINNESOTA: To me, it`s like a return into something
rudimentary and fundamental. I mean, this is where Martin Luther King breathed his
last breath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In honor of, Lorraine Hotel decided not to recheck this room

3. out in Dr. King`s honor and remembrance.
BASH (on camera): This is exactly how it was left?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was left this way.
BASH (voice-over): Right there when it all happened, King`s partner and dear friend,
Reverend Ralph Abernathy, his wife Juanita on this pilgrimage 50 years later.
(on camera): The night that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, you were
with his widow.
JUANITA ABERNATHY, FRIEND OF KING FAMILY: Yes.
BASH: Tell me about that.
ABERNATHY: I told Coretta, I said, well, I`ll meet you in your house, and I stayed
there that night with her --
BASH: So, did you sleep with her in her bed to comfort her?
ABERNATHY: Yes, right?
BASH: The night that her husband was killed?
ABERNATHY: The night that he died, I slept on his side of the bed and my little
children were there with her children.
(SINGING)
BASH: Tell me how you`re feeling. I was watching you standing here.
REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: Well, you know, it`s very emotional to come here.
I was not here that evening.
He changed my life. He inspired me to stand up, to speak up and to never give up.
And when he died, I think something died in all of us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

4. AZUZ (voice-over): Ten-second trivia:
Most of the world`s freshwater is used for what?
Agriculture, industry, sewage or bathing?
According to the United Nations, the majority of the world`s freshwater is used for
agriculture and irrigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: But even in a relatively wealthy nation like the U.S., which uses a relatively
high amount of water, getting clean drinking water at home is not a guarantee. Then
you got the pipes that bring Americans water were laid underground almost 100 years
ago. They`ve deteriorated since then. Some leak, some don`t have enough water
pressure to seal out soil, dirt or chemicals. And some local governments don`t have
the money to replace their pipes.
Improving American infrastructure like its water systems is a priority of the federal
government. But critics say the problems will cost more to fix than the government
provides and in places like Martin County, Kentucky, those problems are literally
seeping [(of a liquid) getting out; Sp. filtrándose] into homes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The
hills of Appalachia are part of America`s legacy. The people here in Martin County,
Kentucky, proudly self-sufficient, but it`s hard to take care of yourself when you
don`t have the most basic of necessities.
HOPE WORKMAN, RESIDENT, MARTIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY: So we have blue
water here. That is crazy.
GUPTA: It`s left Hope Workman with no other choice. Twice a week, Hope and her
daughter drive up this dirt path on the side of a mountain.
WORKMAN: This is what we go through to get water.
GUPTA: Twenty years ago, she placed this 3-1/2-foot-long pipe into this hillside to
tap a spring just to collect clean drinking water because, obviously, no one drinks the
water here.

5. (on camera): Do you drink it?
GARY BALL, EDITOR IN CHIEF, MOUNTAIN CITIZEN: Oh, no. No, no, no, there`s
no way that I drink it.
GUPTA (voice-over): Gary Ball is the editor in chief of the local weekly paper, the
"Mountain Citizen". Water has been a front page story for most of his career.
(on camera): What`s going on here? I mean, for the citizens, the people who live here
and deal with this every day, where do they put this on their list of concerns?
BALL: In 2018, in the very place where LBJ declared war on poverty 54 years ago,
water is our number one issue. That`s hard to imagine.
GUPTA: You declare a war on poverty, 54 years later, you come back there and you
can`t even reliably get clean water? What progress have we really made?
BALL: It`s like a third world country here as far as water. We let our water system
just dilapidate [decay, deteriorate] to the point of collapse.
GUPTA: You went how long without water?
WORKMAN: At that time, it was 10 days.
GUPTA (voice-over): To manage that, Hope has turned her pool into a makeshift
[temporary, improvised] reservoir, collecting rain water for even the most basic
needs.
(on camera): In order to wash your clothes, in order to get water to bathe in, this is
what you have to do?
WORKMAN: Yes, I did this in 17-degree weather and we had to take a chainsaw
[motosierra] to drill through the ice.
GUPTA: Oh my goodness.
WORKMAN: To get to the water.
GUPTA: So you used the chainsaw to get through the ice.
WORKMAN: Yes.

6. GUPTA: And then siphoned [drained, drew off] the water with your mouth out of
this hose?
WORKMAN: Yes. Yes.
GUPTA: That`s what it`s come to?
WORKMAN: That`s what it`s come to.
GUPTA (voice-over): In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the
United States drinking water infrastructure a grade of a D.
WORKMAN: This is the water that`s coming out of my bath.
GUPTA: So, how does the water get so contaminated here in Martin County?
It`s worth looking at how we get our water. Here, it comes from the Tug Fork River,
where it is then pumped into the Crum Reservoir, and from there, it makes its way to
this water treatment center.
(on camera): After getting treated, about 2 million gallons per day of fairly clean
water then leaves this treatment facility through a cascade of pipes traveling all over
the county.
Problem is, those pipes are all so old and cracked. More than 50 percent of the water
leaks out before it gets to the people who need it. Even worse, it`s what`s getting
into those pipes and into the water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Very different kind of problem concerning water was faced by a family in
Sarasota, Florida, recently. There was an uninvited visitor to their backyard swimming
pool and it measured 11 feet long. They called police to address the alligator and a
trapper was brought in to escort the animal out. It resisted it its arrest a bit, but no
one was hurt.
This appears to be an enclosed pool so we`re not sure exactly how it got in. But we
bet the family were a reptilian all their friends about it and their pictures proved
their stories no croc. If that sort of thing is coming, they may want to move snout.
There`s a big difference between a gated community and a gator community and
those animals are crocodile- anything but too cool for pool.

7. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10.