Then commenced the march, people left satisfied with the notion that we 're finally taking a stand for equal job opportunities and true American freedom. (Wukovits, 65-67)
After watching the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on T.V in 1963 Dr. King turned to his wife and said, "This is what is going to happen to me also. I keep telling you, this is a sick nation. And I don 't think I can survive either",(De Angelis, 150) and sure enough, he was correct. As the Vietnam war intensified due to the Tet offensive, the protesting increased in D.C as well. The protests back home were gaining more people and becoming more violent. On March 28th, a demonstration led by the infamous Martin Luther King to support a strike of Memphis Sanitation workers exploded into a riot that led to the death of one marcher and called attention to the National Guard. This event caused Commander and Chief Lyndon B. Johnson to leave his chiefly duties in
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As soon as the news of Dr. King 's assassination had been released, supports distraught and angered called for riotous repercussions. Groups of activist gathered all of the United States; anywhere from Texas to Boston To Mississippi to North Carolina to Washington D.C. A few dozen students gathered outside the Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) offices on 14th Street NW Washington D.C. This is where the former chairman of SNCC, Stokely Carmichael, suddenly appeared and started preaching to the protesters, "When Kennedy died, all these stores closed...Martin Luther King is our leader and we are going to show him some respect.".(quoted in De Angelis) Then led a group of people up 14th street, stopping from store to store demanding the owners to close shop. A group of about thirty young people burst into a drug store. “Martin Luther King is dead,” they shouted. “Close the store down!”(quoted in Green Talks Down Race Riots) The farther down they went on the 14th street and the louder they shouted the more people