4 apr 1968 anni - Martin Luther King Assassination

Descrizione:

Martin Luther King was in Memphis, Tennessee to bring attention to a sanitation workers strike that had been ongoing. The Memphis sanitation workers, an all-black workforce, had walked off in early 1968 after the accidental death of two workers on the job. King's endorsement of the campaign was meant to simultaneously bring attention to the workers and to his larger Poor Peoples Campaign. Most significantly, his participation in the campaign indicated his shift to advocating for material advancement. He understood that civil rights would not bring people the change they needed to see in their lives. So in the years following the passing of the Voting Rights Act, up until his death, King pushed for more radical reform such as wealth redistribution, more welfare funding, tax hikes for the wealthy, etc. This language was, remarkably, more dangerous than his earlier calls for civil rights. And the cost of this advocacy was his life.

He was assassinated at the Lorraine hotel in Memphis.

Following the announcement of his assassination, there were riots across the country. These riots continued throughout 1968.

Given King's death, the subsequent riots, and simultaneous rise of Black Power, many socially conservative scholars (and a large part of the population subsequently) view King's death as a marker of the Civil Rights Movement's death as well.