allroom in Manhattan in full view of 400 blacks Malcolm was murdered.Three men casually walked down the aisle; and from eight feet opened fire with sawed-off doublebarreled shotguns. Malcolm was killed by a pair of point blank range shots to the chest. On March 12, 1965, U.S. Highway 80 was blocked by sixty state troopers who stood in awall three deep 400 yards past the Edmund Pettus Bridge, which crosses the Alabama river. Whenblack marchers came within 100 yards the troopers were ordered to put on their gas masks. Attwenty five yards the marchers stopped. Seconds later the command troopers forward wasbarked. The troopers moved in a solid wall pushing back the front marchers. At 75 yards thetroopers were joined by posse men and deputies with tear gas canisters, in seconds the road wasswirling with clouds of smoke. The mounted men brought out bull whips and began beating themarchers. Never in history had the American public responded with such fury. Over 15,000thousand people marched in five different cities across the country. On Sunday, March 21, 1965 a crowd of 3,400 marchers lead by two Nobel Peace Prizewinners, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Bunche, departed from Selma on their four daymarch to Montgomery. They were accompanied by 2,900 military police, U.S. Marshals, and FBIagents. The goal of the march was to serve the governor with a petition protesting voterdiscrimination. When the crowd reached the capital the governor reneged and blandly told themthe capitol is closed today. By August of 1965 riots began to erupt in Los Angeles. At the end of one week therewere 27 dead, almost 600 injured, 1,700 arrested, and over $100 million dollars worth of propertydamage. The riots were finally stopped when 5,000 national guardsmen were called in fromaround the country. No one actually knows what started the riots, but some blame it on the heatwave that was hitting Los Angels and others blame it on the irritation of the urban black...
