Showdown for Nonviolence Summary and Analysis

This article published after Martin Luther King was assassinated declared the continuing needs of the poor in America. He stated that the government was prepared to play Russian roulette with the riots each summer. None of the basic causes of the riots had been corrected, though violent riots raged. Unemployment, intolerable housing and discrimination continued to ravage the residents of the ghettos.

The progress gained through earlier nonviolent efforts enabled an end to much of the segregation of the south, allowing many to register and vote. The North was becoming as rabid in its desire to repress the rights of blacks as the South had been. Dr. King declared a need to return to nonviolent marches, boycotts and protests, planning a series of marches for Washington, D.C. in the summer. King hoped to bring to the...