500 policemen and 5000 national guardsmen struggled in vain to contain their fury. hour after hour, the toll mounted: 27 dead at the week's end, nearly 600 injured, 1700 arrested, and property damage well over $100 million. The good that came out of all of this, is that thousands of negroes were flocking to register in the nine counties in Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi where the government posted federal examiners to uphold the voting law. In four days, 6,998 negro voters were added to the rolls in counties where there had previously been only 3,857. In that time of sorrow and guilt when King was murdered, there was an opening for peace between the races that might otherwise never have presented itself. president johnson pleaded, "I ask every citizen to reject the blind violence that has struck Dr. King." he went on to say that to bring meaning to his death, we must be determined to strike forcefully at the consciences of all americans in order to wrest from tragedy and trauma, the will to make a better society. Americans who were young in the 1960s influenced the course of the decade as no group had before. the motto of the time was "don't trust anyone over 30." another, "tell it like it is," conveyed a real mistrust of what they considered adult deviousness. Youthful americans were outraged by the intolerance of their universities, racial inequality, social injustice, the Viet Nam war, and the economic and political constraints of everyday life and work. one group that formed during this time was s.d.s. (students for a democratic society). Opposed to "imperialism," racism, and oppression, the s.d.s. found the american university guilty of all three. they did do some good at the beginning like organizing northern ghetto dwellers in projects such as chicago's jobs or income, now (join). But the Viet Nam war led to a change in their tactics. They became an independent radical force against society. the deluge of disorders made it h...
