Why was the assassination of Martin Luther King important?
His assassination led to an outpouring of anger among Black Americans, as well as a period of national mourning that helped speed the way for an equal housing bill that would be the last significant legislative achievement of the civil rights era.
How did MLK’s assassination affect the US?
The riots were political fodder for the Republican party, which used fears of black urban crime to garner support for “law and order”, especially in the 1968 presidential campaign. The assassination and riots radicalized many, helping to fuel the Black Power movement.
What happened to James Earl Ray?
Ray died at age 70 on April 23, 1998, at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C.
What was the reaction to MLK assassination?
Riots broke out in over 100 American cities after King’s murder. Every night in November 1968, National Guardsmen circled the streets in Wilmington, Delaware, armed with loaded rifles and ready to put down racial violence in the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods.
How has MLK impacted the world?
He helped pass landmark federal civil rights and voting rights legislation that outlawed segregation and enfranchised Americans who had been barred from the polls through intimidation and discriminatory state and local laws. (How the Voting Rights Act was won—and why it’s under fire today.)
How long were the riots after MLK assassination?
four-day
The Washington, D.C., riots of 1968 were a four-day period of violent civil unrest and rioting following the assassination of leading African American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, 1968.
What choice does Kennedy believe the country must make after Dr King’s assassination?
King’s death, Kennedy said, left the black community with a choice about how to respond, whether to seek revenge. “We can move in that direction as a country, in greater polarization … black people amongst blacks, and white amongst whites, filled with hatred toward one another,” Kennedy said.
How did MLK impact the black community?
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and an iconic activist who led marches and protests for black people’s civil rights, right to vote, desegregation, and labor rights. One of his first and most notable acts of activism was leading the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott.