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Weekend Magazine: Race riots after the death of Martin Luther King, 1968

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Policeman fires gun into protest crowd
Weekend Magazine: Race riots after the death of Martin Luther King, 1968

SUBJECTS:  Civics and Citizenship, History

YEARS:  9–10


Discover what the USA was trying to come to terms with in 1968 after the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Destruction and killing in more than 100 cities is what followed the event.

This Weekend Magazine special report features African American civil rights activist Floyd McKissick commenting on the riots and calling for much-needed social change.


Things to think about

  1. 1.Do you think democracy is a good form of government? What are the alternatives? What does it mean to live in a democracy? How does living in a democracy affect things like employment, access to services and legal rights?
  2. 2.What did the Kerner Commission say was the cause of the violence? What is the main thing Floyd McKissick says must happen before the racial violence will end? Why does he believe that just providing more welfare will not solve the problem?
  3. 3.Floyd McKissick states that 'It's now time to put responsibility on him (the African American) and let him share in this society and he can solve his own problems of welfare, jobs, housing etc.' How do your observations and interpretations of the clip support or deny McKissick's view?
  4. 4.Research the approach that Dr Martin Luther King took towards achieving racial equality. Explain how the 1968 riots might have been an ironic result of his death.



Date of broadcast: 14 Apr 1968


Copyright

Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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