In this paper, I will be talking about the 1968 Riots and Gallaudet College during its weeklong take-over by the United States military. I will also briefly explain who Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was and why his death had impacted the Black community directly and how Gallaudet College was impacted as a result. I will be using several academic articles and journals written about this incident and use the Gallaudet Buff and Blue newsletters heavily for my main source as well as analytically. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born at noon on January 15, 1929 in Memphis, Tennessee to the Reverend Martin Luther King and Alberta Williams King. Martin Luther King Jr. spent the first twelve years in the Auburn Avenue home that his parents shared …show more content…
Several businesses closed either due to the inability for employees to access the affected areas, damage to stores from looting or fi/res, or because of curfew that was put into effect by the city authorities. One witness, Virginia Ali, whose husband opened the landmark Ben’s Chili Bowl in 1958, recounted her experience, Virginia and her husband Ben placed a makeshift sign in their window that said “Soul Brother” to show the rioters that this was an African-American owned business, “We weren’t the only ones who did that, others did too…some were saved, some were not.” (Referring to businesses that burned …show more content…
The research was difficult since there were not much information on Gallaudet itself during the riots; I had expected to find more information and to rely on a different point of view of the riots and Martin Luther King Jr. It is debatable that students and soldiers alike had spent some alone time with whomever the female student would be chased. With almost no information on the black community in Gallaudet or the impact of his death on the black community in Gallaudet, I conclude that, while the aftermath of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death had a seemingly positive influence on Gallaudet College and the students within in terms of sympathy, positivity, and experience with the soldiers on campus, on the racial side, it felt that the racism was hidden behind the positive words, behind the
Martin Luther King Jr was born on the 15th of January, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, known as Michael Luther King Jr and was than assassinated on the 4th of April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The world renowned Baptist minister and social activist had a massive impact on the American civil rights movement from the mid 1950’s until his assassination in 1968. Martin Luther King Jr’s up bringing was fairly pleasant and he was brought up with a great education. However, he had his couple of prejudices and traumatic experience through out his life. One of these including one of his friends who was a fair skinned boy who was told to tell King that he was no longer allowed to play with him because the children were now attending
1. Sandburg, Carl. A. The Chicago Race Riots. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1969. The “Riot Sweeps Chicago.”
On the night of August 11, 1965 the Watts community of Los Angeles County went up in flames. A riot broke out and lasted until the seventeenth of August. After residents witnessed a Los Angeles police officer using excessive force while arresting an African American male. Along with this male, the police officers also arrested his brother and mother. Twenty-seven years later in 1992 a riot known as both the Rodney King riots and the LA riots broke out. Both share the similar circumstances as to why the riots started. Before each riot there was some kind of tension between police officers and the African American people of Los Angeles. In both cases African Americans were still dealing with high unemployment rates, substandard housing, and inadequate schools. Add these three problems with policemen having a heavy hand and a riot will happen. Many of the primary sources I will you in this analysis for the Watts and the LA riots can be found in newspaper articles written at the time of these events. First-hand accounts from people living during the riots are also used.
Lawson, Steven F., and Charles M. Payne. Debating the Civil Rights Movement, 1945-1968. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. 140. Print.
Kirk, J. (2007). Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement: controversies and debates. Basingstoke New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
“Martin Luther King, Jr...” Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2013. .
Over 200,000 demonstrators participated in the March on Washington in the nation’s capital on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to gain civil rights for African Americans. There was a wide diversity in those who participated, with a quarter of all the demonstrators being white (Ross). Even southern people came to contribute, which caused them to be harassed and threatened for coming to the march. The March on Washington became a very successful event for the rights of African Americans, and amended several peoples’ view-points towards the topic, even President John Kennedy’s.
The Sixties, by Terry H. Anderson, takes the reader on a journey through one of the most turbulent decades in American life. Beginning with the crew-cut conformity of 1950s Cold War culture and ending with the transition into the uneasy '70s, Anderson notes the rise of an idealistic generation of baby boomers, widespread social activism, and revolutionary counterculture. Anderson explores the rapidly shifting mood of the country with the optimism during the Kennedy years, the liberal advances of Johnson's "Great Society," and the growing conflict over Vietnam that nearly tore America apart. The book also navigates through different themes regarding the decade's different currents of social change; including the anti-war movement, the civil rights struggle, and the liberation movements. From the lunch counter sit-in of Greensboro, N.C. in 1960 and the rise of Martin Luther King, Jr. to the Black Power movement at the decade's end, Anderson illustrates the brutality involved in the reaction against civil rights, the radicalization of some of the movement's youth, and the eventual triumphs that would change America forever. He also discusses women's liberation and the feminist movement, as well as the students' rights, gay rights, and environmental movements.
Shaskolsky, Leon. “The Negro Protest Movement- Revolt or Reform?.” Phylon 29 (1963): 156-166. JSTOR. U of Illinois Lib., Urbana. 11 Apr. 2004 .
Dr. King was born the son of Reverend Martin Luther King, Sr, a devout Christian who would raise his son to be so as well. Dr. King skipped ninth and twelfth grade and went on to Morehouse College at the age of fifteen. He graduated in 1948 with a B. A. degree in Sociology. He then went on to attend Crozer Theological Seminary and received his B. Div. degree in 1951. In 1953, he married Coretta Scott and in 1955 he graduated Boston University with a Ph. D. in Systematic Theology. By this point in his life, he was also the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church.
Peaceful protests were the most prominent form of civil rights activities during the sixties, and often proved successful, given time. “Peaceful but relentless protest was more effective than violent action” (Lindop 30), the legendary civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. argued. One form of this protest manifested itself through James Farmer, who formed the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE for short), conceived the bril...
In the duration of one year, 1968, the American national mood shifted from general confidence and optimism to chaotic confusion. Certainly the most turbulent twelve months of the post-WWII period and arguably one of the most disturbing episodes the country has endured since the Civil War, 1968 offers the world a glimpse into the tumultuous workings of a revolution. Although the entire epoch of the 1960's remains significant in US history, 1968 stands alone as the pivotal year of the decade; it was the moment when all of the nation's urges toward violence, sublimity, diversity, and disorder peaked to produce a transformation great enough to blanket an entire society. While some may superficially disagree, the evidence found in the Tet Offensive, race relations, and the counterculture's music of the period undeniably affirm 1968 as a turning point in American history.
The Web. The Web. 5 Nov. 2011. http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Economy/occupy-wall-street-protests- spread-nationwide/story?id=14681988#.TrmQeHIeqdg>. Haines, Herbert H.. "Black Radicalization and the Funding of the Civil Rights: 1957-1970.
Garrow, David J. Protest at Selma: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. New York: New Haven and London Yale University Press. 1978
American & World History. http://www.history.com/topics/martin-luther-king-jr (accessed October 1, 2013). Primary source: a. King, Martin Luther, and Clayborne Carson. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. New York: Intellectual Property Management in association with Warner Books, 1998.