An image shared on Facebook claims to show a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and actor Samuel L. Jackson together in 1966.

Verdict: False

There is no evidence Jackson is in the 1966 photo. The actor debunked the claim on his verified Twitter account.

Fact Check:

The image shared on Facebook appears to show a black and white photo of King playing pool while a group of spectators watches. “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shooting pool in 1966,” reads the Facebook image’s caption. “Samuel L. Jackson, who was a freshman at Morehouse College at the time, is in this photo.”

There is no evidence that Jackson is one of the onlookers in the photo. A reverse image search reveals the photo can be found in the Bob Fitch Photography Archive on the Stanford University Libraries website. Fitch, a photojournalist who worked with King, took the photo in Chicago in 1966, according to its description. A curator of the archive told Check Your Fact that no one in the photo has been identified besides King.

Jackson himself debunked the claim that he is in the picture. In a tweet from his verified Twitter account, he responded to a claim on Twitter that he is in the photo by saying, “Okay, I met Dr King, but not at a pool hall. That’s NOT me!!”

Okay, I met Dr King, but not at a pool hall. That’s NOT me!!

— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) January 23, 2022

Both King and Jackson did attend Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. King did so from 1944 to 1948, according to the college’s website, while Jackson did so beginning in 1966, according to The Hollywood Reporter. (RELATED: Did MLK Say, ‘I Will Not Rejoice in The Death Of One, Not Even An Enemy’?)

Check Your Fact has previously debunked misinformation about King, including a viral post that alleged he died not from being shot, but rather from being smothered at the hospital.