The Memphis church pivotal in Martin Luther King Jr.'s final days suffers a devastating fire

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A historic Black church in downtown Memphis that was the organizing point for Martin Luther King Jr.'s final campaign in 1968 caught fire early Monday morning and suffered significant damage.

“The inside is a total loss, but we're still somewhat hopeful that some of the facade will be able to be left standing,” Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat said at a Monday morning news conference about the fire at Clayborn Temple.

She said the blaze was reported at 1:39 a.m. through a commercial alarm service. Local fire and police officers are investigating the cause, along with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It is “way too early” to know anything more, Sweat said.

King was drawn to Memphis in 1968 to support some 1,300 predominantly Black sanitation workers who went on strike to protest inhumane treatment. Two workers had been crushed in a garbage compactor in 1964, but the faulty equipment had not been replaced. On Feb. 1, 1968, two more men, Echol Cole, 36, and Robert Walker, 30, were crushed in the compactor. The two men were contract workers, so they did not qualify for workmen’s compensation, and had no life insurance.

Workers wanted to unionize, and fought for higher pay and safer working conditions. City officials declared the strike illegal and arrested scores of strikers and protesters.

Before the fire, the Clayborn Temple was undergoing a $25 million restoration that was slated for completion in 2026. The initiative aims to preserve the architectural and historical integrity of the Romanesque revival church and includes the restoration of a 3,000-pipe grand organ. At the same time, the project seeks to help revitalize the local neighborhood with a museum, cultural programing and community outreach, according to a news release on the renovation.

“This morning we woke up to heartbreaking news: a devastating fire has ravaged one of our city’s greatest treasures, Clayborn Temple,” Memphis Mayor Paul Young wrote in a statement posted to social media. “Clayborn is more than a historic building. It is sacred ground. It is the beating heart of the civil rights movement, a symbol of struggle, hope, and triumph that belongs not just to Memphis but to the world.”

Just south of Beale Street, Clayborn Temple was built in 1892 as the Second Presbyterian Church and originally served an all-white congregation. In 1949, the building was sold to an African Methodist Episcopal congregation and renamed Clayborn Temple, according to the release.

Memphis sanitation workers started striking in February 1968 after Cole and Walker were killed on the job.

The Clayborn Temple hosted nightly meetings and the campaign’s iconic “I AM A MAN” posters were made in its basement. The temple was also a staging point for marches to City Hall. They included a March 28, 1968, march led by King, a rally that turned violent when police and protesters clashed on the iconic Beale Street, and a 16-year-old was killed.

When marchers retreated to the temple, police fired tear gas inside. People broke some of the stained-glass windows to escape. King promised to lead a second, peaceful march in Memphis, but he was killed by a sniper while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4.

After King was assassinated and the strike ended with the workers securing a pay raise, the church’s influence waned. It fell into disrepair and was vacant for years before the renovation effort that took off in 2017 thanks to a $400,000 grant from the National Park Service.

Clayborn Temple was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Anasa Troutman has been leading the restoration effort as executive director of Historic Clayborn Temple.

“To everyone who has loved, supported, and prayed for Historic Clayborn Temple, we are still committed to her restoration,” she wrote in a Monday statement urging supporters to donate money if they are able.

Jimmie Tucker, one of the architects who has worked on the restoration for years, spent Monday morning working on a plan to try to shore up the exterior walls.

“As a native Memphian, this project is personal,” he said. “It has so much meaning.”

Tucker said he had been speaking to some of the people who helped after a similar Memphis fire at First United Methodist Church in 2006. He said that project gives him hope because they were able to rebuild. He was also encouraged that the mayor pledged to support the project.

Young said in a social media statement that the city will “help ensure this sacred place rises again.”

Loller reported from Nashville, Tennessee.

FILE - People hold signs resembling the signs carried by striking sanitation workers in 1968 as they join in events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in Memphis, Tenn. King was assassinated April 4, 1968, while in Memphis supporting striking sanitation workers. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - People gather at the Clayborn Temple as they prepare to march in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn., on April 8, 1968, four days after the civil rights leader was assassinated. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - Tennessee National Guard troopers in jeeps and trucks escort a protest march by striking Memphis sanitation workers through downtown Memphis, Tenn., March 30, 1968. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Striking sanitation workers and their supporters are flanked by bayonet-wielding National Guard troops and armored vehicles, during a march on City Hall in Memphis, Tenn., March 29, 1968, one day after a similar march erupted in violence, leaving one person dead and several injured. (AP Photo/Charlie Kelly, File)

FILE - The Rev. Ralph Abernathy, right, and Bishop Julian Smith, left, flank Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., during a civil rights march in Memphis, Tenn., March 28, 1968. (AP Photo/Jack Thornell, File)

FILE - This March 25, 2017 photo shows the damaged pipe organ in the Clayborn Temple in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, file)

FILE - This March 26, 2017, file photo, shows the Clayborn Temple in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

FILE - This March 25, 2017 photo shows the Clayborn Temple in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

Talibah Safiya and Tamika Turner grieve outside the historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, that caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

The historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

The historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

Sadyya Rockett-Miller and her husband Andre LeMoyne Miller grieve outside of the historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, that caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

FILE - A bronze and steel sculpture honoring a sanitation workers strike that brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis in 1968 was dedicated on April 5, 2018, in Memphis, Tenn. The memorial sits next to the Clayborn Temple, which served as the headquarters of the strike. (AP Photo/Adrian Sainz)

Sadyya Rockett-Miller and her husband Andre LeMoyne Miller grieve outside of the historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, that caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

Sadyya Rockett-Miller grieves (center)The historic Clayborn Temple, a landmark from the civil rights movement with ties to Martin Luther King, caught fire Monday, April 28, 2025, in Memphis, Tenn. (AP Photo/Karen Pulfer Focht)

FILE - In this April 8, 1968, file photo, people gather at the Clayborn Temple as they prepare to march in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King in Memphis, Tenn., four days after the civil rights leader was assassinated. (AP Photo/File)

POZUELO DE ALARCON, Spain (AP) — An adviser to former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was shot to death Wednesday outside the American School of Madrid, where at least one of his children was enrolled, Spanish authorities and witnesses said.

Andrii Portnov, 51, was shot at 9:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) as students were arriving, Spain's Interior Ministry said.

Portnov was a former politician tied closely to Yanukovych, the pro-Moscow president of Ukraine from 2010 until he was ousted in a popular uprising in 2014 after shelving plans to bring the country closer to the European Union and instead deepen ties with President Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Yanukovych's ouster in February 2014 followed a brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters, with dozens of people killed, many by police snipers.

Portnov was deputy head of the presidential office in that period and was involved in drafting legislation aimed at punishing participants of the uprising. Ukrainian authorities opened a treason case against him, which was later closed, and he also was the subject of U.S. sanctions involving corruption in Ukraine.

Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on Portnov's killing.

Witnesses said Portnov was shot several times in the head and body by more than one gunman when he was getting into a Mercedes Benz registered to him, police said. The unidentified assailants then fled on foot, and local media reported police helicopters later flew over a nearby park.

Portnov died in the parking lot with at least three shots to his body, Madrid’s emergency services said.

He had one child enrolled at the school, according to a parent and an uncle of students there who spoke with The Associated Press. The school declined to comment.

After fleeing Ukraine in 2014, Portnov reportedly lived in Russia in 2015 before relocating to Austria. It wasn’t immediately clear when he moved to Spain.

In 2018, when pro-Western Petro Poroshenko was president of Ukraine, the country’s Security Service, or SBU, opened an investigation against Portnov on suspicion of state treason, alleging his involvement in Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The criminal case was closed in 2019, three months after Volodymyr Zelenskyy came to power.

The United States imposed personal sanctions on Portnov in 2021, designating him as someone “responsible for or complicit in, or (who) has directly or indirectly engaged in, corruption, including the misappropriation of state assets, the expropriation of private assets for personal gain, corruption related to government contracts or the extraction of natural resources, or bribery.”

Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, there have been a number of killings of high-profile figures linked to Moscow and Kyiv.

The killings have included Darya Dugina, the daughter of a prominent Russian nationalist; military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky; and several high-ranking Russian military officers. In those instances, Ukraine denied involvement.

One exception was former Ukrainian lawmaker Illia Kyva, who fled to Russia before the invasion and was killed there in 2023. The SBU said in a statement that its chief, Vasyl Maliuk, has said the enemies of Ukraine “will definitely be held accountable for their crimes.”

One killing that prompted speculation of retaliation by Moscow was the shooting death in Spain last year of Russian pilot Maxim Kuzminov, who defected to Ukraine in 2023, although there was no independent confirmation of Russia's involvement.

Police cordoned off a crime scene in a parking lot outside the gate of the American School of Madrid, located in the upscale town of Pozuelo de Alarcón, north of Madrid.

Luis Rayo, 19, who lives in a neighboring building, said he was sleeping when he heard gunfire and went to see what happened.

Timur Ayaokur, 17, said he was 20 minutes into his first class when he and his classmates heard of the shooting. School administrators told students that a man had been shot and pronounced dead outside.

“I thought it was a drill,” said Ayaokur, who is in 11th grade. “I was worried because at first I thought it might be a parent of someone I know.”

His mother, Elina Ayaokur, who is originally from Azerbaijan, said she knew the victim through the emigre community but did not know him well.

“I didn’t know there were Ukrainian politicians there,” Ayaokur said, adding that the victim had a son in the fourth grade. “I was in shock. Like how is it possible that this happens here?”

Wilson reported from Barcelona, Spain, and Novikov reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

Members of the judicial police work near the body of Andrii Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, after Portnov was shot outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police at the scene after Andrii Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police at the scene after Andrii Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

A view of the scene after Andrii Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police at the scene after Andriy Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

A view of the scene after Andriy Portnov, an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Police officers cordon off the area after an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Police officers cordon off the area after an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police at the scene after an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police at the scene after an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych was shot, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)

Members of the judicial police work next to the body of an adviser to former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, at the scene of a shooting, outside a school in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Paul White)