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VIDEO: Newly Digitized Footage of MLK Assassin James Earl Ray

Thursday was the 45th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The civil rights icon was shot April 4 1968 while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

The Shelby County Register's office has released newly digitized footage of Ray's arrest and trial of Ray. This includes footage of Ray being given his Miranda rights on an airplane after his arrest in London in July 1968. Ray is seen in the checkered shirt.

Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...

"The personnel using the equipment were learning how to operate this technology as they recorded," said the Shelby County Register in a statement. "As a result, the footage is not always as clear as we are accustomed to seeing today. ... Audio portions are not always clear."

James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of Dr. King in 1969 and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He died in 1997 at the age of 80. Watch the video AFTER THE JUMP ...

Apple, Facebook, Nike to Join 200+ Companies Opposing DOMA/Prop 8

More than 200 of the nation's leading publicly traded companies are joining two separate actions to oppose Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act at the Supreme Court, reports Bloomberg.

Apple Inc and Morgan Stanley [lead] the corporate group [which] includes Facebook and Intel. [It] will argue in its brief that gay-marriage bans in 41 states harm workplace morale and undermine recruiting.

The publicly traded companies backing gay marriage include Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Alcoa Inc., American International Group Inc, EBay Inc., Marsh & McLennan Cos., NCR Corp., Nike Inc, Oracle Corp, Office Depot Inc., Panasonic Corp., Xerox Corp., Barnes & Noble and Caesars Entertainment Corp.

A larger group of companies -- more than 200, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) -- is also poised to side with gay- rights advocates in a second Supreme Court case, involving a federal law that defines marriage as a heterosexual union. Under that law, known as the Defense of Marriage Act, legally married gay couples can’t claim the federal tax breaks and other benefits available to opposite-sex spouses. The companies in that case are part of a collection of more than 250 employers, including cities, counties and law firms.

Meanwhile: More than 100 lawmakers, politicians and former Republican leaders have now signed on to the Republican SCOTUS brief opposing Prop 8, reports the New York Times.

The list of Republicans on the brief now tallies more than 100, organizers say. It now includes Beth Myers, who ran Mr. Romney’s 2008 campaign and was a senior adviser to him in 2012. The brief, organized by Ken Mehlman, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee who is gay, will be filed on Thursday as a friend-of-the-court, or amicus, brief to a lawsuit that seeks to overturn Proposition 8.

Towleroad published a list on Tuesday of the Republican signatories so far. The list includes Florida Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, former Reagan budget director David Stockman, former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, former California Rep. Mary Bono Mack ... and Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman, the former California Republican gubernatorial nominee who infamously supported Proposition 8 and vowed to defend it in court.

EBONY: Will Aretha's Inauguration Hat Make a Comeback?

Our first item today at EBONY: Aretha Franklin's now-iconic bejeweled bow hat from President Obama's first inauguration is rumored to make an reappearance today.  #ThatHat became one of the earliest internet memes and coincided with the growing popularity of Facebook and Twitter at that time.

Read the story HERE.

Marc Lamont Hill on HuffPost Live: "Black Men Under Fire"

Marc Lamont Hill hosted an excellent Huff Post Live discussion on "Black Men Under Fire"—the escalating and ongoing number of cases of unarmed Black men who have been brutally shot down. The recent case of 17-year-old Jordan Davis is among the latest examples.

The Davis case shows that "Black men are still marked as dangerous and lethal threats in America," said Hill. "Why can't we move past the criminalization and murder of these young Black men? When I first heard it, I thought someone mixed this up with Trayvon Martin. Why can't they get any police intervention or benefit of the doubt?"

Mark Anthony Neal agreed. "There are very few spaces in American society to access the humanity of Black men. Especially young Black men," said the Professor of Black Popular Culture at Duke University. "Even looking at sports, Black athletes are [perceived] as gladiators. ... Black men are always seen as a threat. They can just be outside listening to music and [society] sees them as a threat."

Watch AFTER THE JUMP ...

HOT: Ace Rockwood Tumblr

PHOTOS: Tumblr, Murrays Men, Lucas Entertainment

Gay porn XXX tatted supa-hotness Ace Rockwood—last seen taking your questions and showing off his outrageous CD collection—strikes a ridiculously Leni Riefenstahl-inspired spornotastic pose in these new(ish) images on Tumblr.

A peek at Ace's assets AFTER THE JUMP ...

"Horses and Bayonets": Leading Meme After 3rd Presidential Debate

First it was Big Bird. Then it was "Binders Full of Women." And now, "Horses and Bayonets" has emerged as the leading social media and internet meme after the third presidential debate.

President Obama's delicious reply was to Mitt Romney's canned remarks about the size of the Navy

ROMNEY: Our Navy is old — excuse me, our Navy is smaller now than at any time since 1917. The Navy said they needed 313 ships to carry out their mission. We’re now at under 285. We’re headed down to the low 200s if we go through a sequestration. That’s unacceptable to me.

OBAMA: The budget that we are talking about is not reducing our military spending. It is maintaining it. But I think Governor Romney maybe hasn’t spent enough time looking at how our military works.

You mentioned the Navy, for example, and that we have fewer ships than we did in 1916. Well, Governor, we also have fewer horses and bayonets, because the nature of our military’s changed. We have these things called aircraft carriers, where planes land on them. We have these ships that go underwater, nuclear submarines. And so the question is not a game of Battleship, where we’re counting slips. It’s what are our capabilities.

The reply "took off instantly" across the social media networks, reports the Associated Press.

On Twitter, the hashtag "horsesandbayonets" immediately began trending in the United States and became the top trend in the country and third worldwide, even an hour after the debate ended. On Facebook, users created more than 50 pages named "Horses and Bayonets." The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee also pounced, posting a meme declaring "Obama just sank Romney's battleship" that generated more than 84,000 likes and was shared more than 16,000 times in an hour.

There is also a Tumblr but it's not nearly as LOLz or clever as the "Binders" meme. Watch the video clip AFTER THE JUMP ...

Homophobic Backlash After Gay "Kappa Wedding" Video Goes Viral

There is an absolutely stunning wedding video of two grooms that has gone viral and created some controversy. Robert Brown and Nathanael Gay jumped the broom on September 8, 2012 in a beautiful ceremony at the Griffin Gate Marriott Resort in Lexington, Kentucky.

The video montage captures the special day with exquisite photos of friends and family celebrating the day with Jennifer Hudson’s "If This Isn’t Love" in the background. The video was uploaded to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and that's when the controversy began. Nathanael  is a member of Kappa Alpha Psi, the historically Black fraternity. Several of the frat's distinctive symbols were prominent in the wedding video, notes Britni Danielle at Clutch Magazine.

As the video began to spread, the comments grew. Twitter exploded and “Kappa” became a trending topic after folks picked up on the fact that Nathanael appears to be a member of Kappa Alpha Psi*, a historically black fraternity.

In one part of the video, Nathanael is seen “throwing up the Yo” (the hand sign) and presumably posing with other members of the fraternity. Many of the negative commenters used this brief image to condemn not only Robert and Nathanael, but also the fraternity as well. While many of the comments about Robert and Nathanael’s union were positive, the onslaught of hate the wedding video provoked was astounding.

The situation is reminiscent of the 2009 wedding of popular Minneapolis hairstylist Michael Cole Smith and husband Jamil Smith Cole, who faced a vicious internet backlash after photos of their extravagant ceremony were uploaded online.

The "gay Kappa" wedding has apparently gained huge traction online because of the revered status of historically Black Greek organizations in the Black community. Another obvious factor is the homophobia associated with many Black frats—and part of that can be ascribed to their well-known closeted gay sub-culture. The fraternities association with the wedding is probably not the central issue—it's probably the denial of same-sex attraction in the larger Black community as well as expectations around "masculinity".

The grooms will be guests later this afternoon in a HuffPostLive segment hosted by Maclamont Hill. Watch the beautiful wedding video AFTER THE JUMP ...

Bill Clinton's DNC Speech Led to 22K Tweets Per Minute

PHOTOS: REUTERS

Former President Bill Clinton delivered an amazing case for the re-election of President Barack Obama last night at the Democratic National Convention.

Clinton's speech created a huge buzz across social media networks, with his phrases such as #Arithmetic and #DoubleDownonTrickleDown trending across Twitter. The metrics and "arithmetic" were quite impressive, according to the Twitter Blog.

The 42nd President saw the highest spike in Tweets per minute of the night right at the end of his speech: 22,087. Interestingly, though this peak was higher than @MittRomney’s highest last week in Tampa, Clinton’s was less than @MichelleObama’s peak last night.

The peaks from his speech came at the following moments:
Discussing Obama's job record: 16,115 TPM
-Urging the audience to vote for Obama: 15,266 TPM
-"All in this together" statement: 15,111 TPM
-Discussing Hillary Clinton’s role, and “blood sport” line: 14,538 TPM
-“Takes some brass” quip: 14,393 TPM

"We just heard more about GOP Presidential accomplishments from Bill Clinton than the entire RNC," tweeted MSNBC host Ed Schultz. "Clint Eastwood needs to sit in his empty chair and be schooled by #BillClinton," tweeted author Marcia L. Dyson.

Clinton's speech was about 50% more popular on Twitter than Mitt Romney's acceptance speech. The Republican nominee's speech yielded a maximum of 14,289TPM,

It was a masterful speech coming from the man who presided over this nation's largest post-war expansion. No one can deconstruct high-level policy issues into folksy soundbites like Bill Clinton. In case you missed it, watch the speech AFTER THE JUMP ...

Michelle Obama 's DNC Speech Led to 28K Tweets Per Minute

PHOTO: GETTY

Rave reviews for the opening night of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte—and even more praise for First Lady Michelle Obama's amazing speech. The social media metrics were outrageously impressive, according to the Twitter Blog.

Although it’s just the first night at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, people have already posted more than 3 million Tweets, including #DNC2012 and related terms. In comparison, there were 4 million Tweets sent throughout the three days of last week’s Republican National Convention (#RNC2012).

Among tonight’s keynotes, First Lady Michelle Obama’s (@MichelleObama) primetime speech peaked at 28,003 Tweets per minute (TPM) at its conclusion — nearly double Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s (@MittRomney) 14,289 peak. One line in her speech this evening — “we've got so much more to do” — saw 22,004 TPM.

Surpassing Romney’s acceptance speech is not a difficult task. A new Gallup poll released on Tuesday showed the Republican nominee's speech received the lowest score ever for a convention speech.

The sublime beauty in Mrs. Obama's speech was that she destroyed everything Romney and the Republicans stand for—preventing a woman's right to choose, opposing labor protections, equal pay, gay rights and health care for the poor, etc.—without ever mentioning his name. The speech also included two LGBT references. 

Go FLOTUS! Go UChicago! Watch the full speech AFTER THE JUMP ...

REPORTS: Hackers Target Anti-Gay African Nations

Cyber activists or "hacktivists" have attacked government websites across Africa to protest anti-LGBT laws that discriminate, imprison or even condemn gays and lesbians across the continent, reports Gay Star News, Radio Netherlands Worldwide and Zambian Watchdog. The coordinated attacks have targeted Botswana, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda in an operation known as #OpFuckAfrica.

The Anonymous and TheEliteSociety hacking groups have launched a joint all-out attack against countries in Africa that kill or imprison LGBT people. The groups promise more websites will be hacked in African states that oppress LGBT rights. Last Thursday, hacktivists hacked the website of Botswana’s Export Development and Investment Authority, and leaked its database. Somalia’s TV Network and Gurmad company websites were also hacked.

Just last week saw the hackers taking over Ugandan Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi’s website. They posted a fictitious statement on the site in which Mbabazi apologised for his government’s anti-gay stance and expressed his support for the recent Uganda gay Pride week.

The hacktivists have apparently singled out Sudan for the most damage. Sudan is one of four African nations that boast the death penalty for gays or same-sex activity. The other three are Mauritania, Nigeria and Somalia. "Cyber activists have hacked 73 official government websites in Sudan, including the president's, as they continue to demand LGBT people in Africa are given rights,"  reports Gay Star News.

Last week's cyber-attack against the Ugandan governement  targeted 'the prime minister's office, Parliament, the Uganda Securities Exchange and Uganda Law Society, a government statement said," according to Radio Netherlands Worldwide.

Homosexuality is punishable by up to life in prison in Uganda, which has been condemned by the international community for its state-sponsored anti-gay terror campaign. Parliament has revived the extreme Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which seeks the death penalty or life imprisonment for anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for a second time.

Same-sex acts are currently illegal in at least 38 of 54 African countries. South Africa and Seychelles are the only African nations that protect LGBT rights. SA is also the only African nation to guarantee marriage equality and gay adoption.