How Did Martin Luther King's Black Riot Affect The Civil Rights Movement?

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This all started after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The march that took place on April 9th 1968 was supposed to be a peaceful one. Veron Thompson, one of the marchers said, “The kids were peaceful, but demanding, before the cops got there.” Once Phase II was announced by the Police Chief things started to get out of hand. People started to loot, destroy people’s property, and even violence took place. There was so much tension coming from the people and when the police, who were one of the biggest reasons for racism existing in 1968, showed up with tear gas and threw them at the crowds, people started to get violent. The violence was caused because of the angry that the people felt. So many African Americans were getting disrespected and nobody seemed to be doing anything. The riot that took place in Kansas City in 1968 was meaningful to the people who participated and it has some sort of impact on political, social, and cultural change. …show more content…
This riot effected many residence of Kansas City. The reason for the march that turned into a riot was to give people awareness. Martin Luther King Jr. made a big impact. His “dream” was to end racism and he was killed because of it. The riot didn’t start until a couple of days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. The reason it did start was the lack of disrespect that was coming the government who wouldn’t even close school due to Kings death. The people who started the march were only students. They just wanted to fight for their futures and prove to the people that their lives were important. The government didn’t cancel school on the Missouri side, but they did on the Kansas side which wasn’t fair and they decided to take a stand against that. The students decided then to form a group of people to go march and protest, the goal was not to encourage violence, but instead to bring awareness to the people who were ignoring what had happened. Students skipped school that day and many Kansas City citizens came to join them in Kansas City downtown. Six African American’s lost their lives during the course of the riot and many were hurt and many were arrested during the course of the riot. So when the question is asked if riots are impactful, the answer is of course. People who saw these deaths were impacted, the families of those who died were impacted, the people who were rioting were impacted, and those who caused the deaths were impacted. The riot also impacted those who lived in Kansas City and who owned a business that was trashed or burned down. People feared for their lives during this time and all those people who were involved in the riot feared for what would or could happen to them, but they believed that what they were doing was making a difference and so the kept on fighting. The riot only started after the police threw tear gas at the marchers and after that the people got angry. People started vandalizing and looting, and the policeman got even more brutal. A man

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